Commentary :: Miscellaneous

DARPA & TIA? The Next Big Brother Nightmare Is RFID - Here's The Story

Author

ziggy

Date Created

20 Jun 2003

More details...

Reference websites to a consumer watchdog group and links to a Rense.com radio program

You know how the rightwing Christian fundamentalist types freak-out over chips that can be embedded into human bodies? Well, that technology really isn't necessary for near-total tracking because worldwide total information awareness of most consumer products is 1 or two years away from mass market roll-out. The technology is perfected today.

Remember how William Safire was one of the main catalysts behind the sudden rise in opposition to DARPA's Total Information Awareness? Well, Safire didn't even come close to fully appreciating just how powerful and TOTAL the "T" in TIA can be. Radio Frequency Identification Chips (RFID) are like electronic UPC barcodes. They can draw power from a radio transmission/reading source and transmit over short distances today (50 feet -- not all that short!). One day, their transmission will extend further. The chips themselves are tiny. The enclosure systems are large, but they can still be embedded in products without human visual detection (like your shoes). They don't use battery power, and they can be relatively impervious to the environment because they're enclosed in thin plastic strips that house the chip and antenna systems. Tossing clothing into a washing machine isn't going to short circuit these nightmare circuits.

WalMart controls 30% of the retail market in the US, and WalMart has told it's 100 top suppliers that RFID must be in all products by the end of 2004, which will mean that nearly the entire retail world in the US will have to adopt the standard. If this technology goes to market, there will come a time when nearly everything you buy will likely be associated with a unique ID number -- literally unique to every single product (UPC barcodes for a single product production run of coca-cola use the same UPC code on many cans). This code will then be able to be matched with the exact consumer that purchased the product -- when and where. Depending on what it is, it will then be possible to have a wide variety of monitoring and interaction relationships with the consumer thereafter. For example, if you have RFID in your shoes and there are readers on public transit bus lines, you can be identified because it's not likely someone is going to be wearing your shoes.

It's important to consider where all this retail data goes. In the computer world, storage is cheap, processing power is dear (but not that dear). Always remember this. We now live in a world where anything and everything can have its digital signature archived forever. Governments and corporations are going to get their hands on this data, and there really isn't any limit to the type of social engineering that can develop over time, given future technology advance. Yes, it's a leap to move beyond RFID readers at the point of retail check-out to buses serving large cities. But it's not that big of a leap. What William Safire failed to do was underscore that only imagination limits just how pervasive "TIA" can be, never mind the fact that he apparently is unaware of RFID!

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The Jeff Rense radio show hosted Katherine Albrecht on June 18, 2003. She runs the NoCards.Org and StopRFID.com websites. Her segment starts at the 1 hour mark and extends through to the end of the program. If you click on the links below, it will fire-up the archives off the Rense.com partner server. You can also visit Rense.com directly. Rense covers many "out there" topics -- UFOs, etc. He's a bit more professional than the Art Bell style. One must always have a critical mind. But regardless of what one thinks about the "out there" subjects/guests Rense gives air time to, he does air political issues that the mainstream finds too hot to touch.

Parting shot: It's worth pointing out that DARPA's Total Information Awareness program continues, under a new name. And just because Congress told the bad boys in the National Security State that they can't deploy this stuff without formal review and approval doesn't mean that it will not be deployed -- and it is certainly being developed, in spite of the low-key spin the Pentagon puts on it today.

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