[Infowarrior] - IBM demos RFID tag with privacy-protecting features

[Richard Forno]

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/050106-ibm-rfid-privacy.html

IBM demos RFID tag with privacy-protecting features

By Ann Bednarz, Network World, 05/01/06

As use of radio frequency identification technology in supply chain settings
progresses, industry experts have been devising ways to address consumer
privacy concerns related to item-level RFID tagging.

The latest to tackle the issue is IBM, which this week is expected to
demonstrate its design for an RFID tag with a disabling feature that limits
- but doesn't kill - a wireless chip's ability to broadcast item
information.

The Clipped Tag gives consumers the option to disable RFID tags on items
they purchase without eliminating the possibility that the tags could be
used later to expedite product returns or recalls, says Paul Moskowitz, a
research staff member at IBM's Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, N.Y. The
design calls for a product label with perforations "like a sheet of postage
stamps," he says.

After purchasing a tagged item, a consumer can tear the Clipped Tag label
along the perforations to remove a portion of the tag's antenna, reducing
its transmission capability. "When you do that, you do not kill the tag
completely. The chip is still there, and it has some of the antenna left.
But you've just taken a tag that may have had a 30-foot range and reduced
the range to just a few inches."

Once it's torn, the tag can't be read unless it's presented directly to a
reader. "The tag becomes a close proximity tag rather than a long-distance
tag," Moskowitz says. By preserving the tag's functionality, retailers can
still read the information stored on the chip if necessary.

Typically, an item-level RFID tag stores a single Electronic Product Code
(EPC). An EPC is a 96-bit identification number that indicates a
manufacturer's code and product code, along with a serial number unique to
the item. Retailers and consumer goods manufacturers can link an EPC number
with other supply chain data to determine information such as where an item
was shipped from, how long it sat on store shelves and price history.

An EPC code isn't readily associated with a consumer's personal information,
such as who bought the item or the buyer's credit card number. But privacy
advocates say the association with particular items purchased is enough to
compromise privacy.

For example, since RFID tags don't require direct contact with a reader and
can be read simultaneously, a wireless reader could potentially reveal the
contents of a shopper's bag by determining the manufacturers' codes and
product codes. Just as barcodes aren't encrypted, neither are EPC codes
typically encrypted, according to Moskowitz.

So far, in the supply chain world, most RFID implementations involve
labeling shipping cases and pallets. But before long, individual retail
items will sport RFID labels, Moskowitz says. "This where privacy becomes a
concern, because RFID tags can be read at a distance and they can be read by
wireless means," he says.

To address the issue, standards body EPCglobal built a kill command into the
new Gen2 communications protocol for UHF tags. Retailers can execute the
kill command at the point of sale - but it deactivates tags permanently.
This means tags can't be revived and used to help facilitate a product
return or product recall, Moskowitz says.

Another disadvantage of the kill command is that it will require retailers
to manage passwords for every item, Moskowitz says. "If you have a kill
command and it's not password-protected, you open yourself to vandalism.
Somebody could just kill all the tags." Yet password management for
item-level tags would be very difficult given the millions of items each
retailer handles, he says.

IBM - which makes RFID middleware - developed the Clipped Tag with partners
Marlen RFID and Printronix. Label manufacturer Marlen RFID has produced
versions of the Clipped Tag that can be fed into standard RFID printers,
such as those from Printronix.

Moskowitz, who holds 67 U.S. patents, has been working with RFID technology
for 13 years. This week he's at the RFID Journal Live conference in Las
Vegas demonstrating the Clipped Tag.

IBM has filed a patent application for the Clipped Tag. So far it hasn't
made any decisions about how it might license the technology, Moskowitz
says.

All contents copyright 1995-2005 Network World, Inc.
http://www.networkworld.com