Politech mailing list archives
J.D. Abolins on RFID tagging and privacy [priv]
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:48:38 -0400
-------- Original Message --------Subject: Follow-up Re: [Politech] Activist starts petition to oppose RFID tagging of homeless [priv]
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 22:49:18 -0400 From: J.D. Abolins <jda-ir () njcc com> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>, Sheri Grutz <sgrutz () yahoo com> CC: Katherine Albrecht <kma () nocards org> References: <416CA6B8.6060707 () well com> Sheri (and Declan & Katherine), Here's a long follow-up to the thread and a cure for insomnia... The extensive email here is The particular UPI story is deemed as most likely an April Fool's joke text from some yet unknown source because of the 1 April 2004 date and, moreimportant, the lack of any info on a specific Health & Human Services plan or proposal to implant RFIDs in homeless *currently or in the very near future*.
This does NOT mean that there aren't people in the government and elsewhere who would want some method of extensive tracking and control, be it via implants or other means. Later in this email, I'll get to some current documentable proposals and legislation that pose threats to liberties and privacy.There has been, indeed, a program churning for the trackign of homeless people
in the USA. The Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has established a program for "Homeless Management InformationStrategies" (HMIS). The degree of cataloguing and tracking of homeless people
has raised privacy concerns and objections to extensive tracking.The Congress had mandated data collection to know the extent of homeless but
the HMIS goes further than that job. Local people collect data including names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth. The data is stripped ofidentifying information and sent to HUD. Chris Hoofnagle, deputy counsel for
the Electronic Privacy Information Center, had stated that "It's a tracking system.... It's not just an enumeration. They take unique identifiers, linkthem to other personal information and track it over time." In some areas of the USA, local services to the homeless declined to collect certain info such
as SSNs and settled for first and last initials plus gender. HUD HMIS References: HUD HMIS Main Page: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/hmis/index.cfmHUD HMIS Data and Technical Standards Final Notice; 30 July 2004 Federal
Register (PDF): http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/rulesandregs/fr4848-n-02.pdf Federal Computer Week - "Homeless system raises privacy concerns; HUD collecting data about homeless population' (25 Aug 2004): http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0825/pol-homeless-08-25-03.asp Future Prospects for RFIDs as Human Implants: RFID implants in humans have been done in various ways and for a variety ofpurposes, more outside of the USA than within the USA. With the FDA approval of the Verichip this week, one speedbump for wider use of human implants has been removed. This does not mean that the government and other entities will be demanding to implant us all... not right away. Legal, social, and economic
factors bump around. For many of the RFID implant possibilities, there are alternative s such as smart cards, cell phone tracking, and biometrics.Elsewhere in the world, RFID implants are more likely to increase. Among the
recent examples are an optional RFID-for-access-and-payments system in a Spanish resort and Mexican federal prosecutor's office using RFID implants for access control. For some thoughts on where human implants might show up, see "Getting Under Your Skin", Government Technology, September 2004 at http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.print.php?id=91402 .(NOTE: The above URL doesn't seem to work well. If you have problems , try the
Google cached version athttp://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:8PENUlrJk-MJ:www.govtech.net/magazine/story.print.php%3Fid%3D91402 )
It is likely that RFID human implants will simmer for while while otheridentification and tracking methods are attempted, with the implants showing
up intensively at some point further down the road. Some like Scot McNealy,the CEO of Sun Microsystems, take shots against privacy concerns with quote's
like this from McNealy in 2003: "They're going to slap that baby's bottom,then slip an ID chip in their neck or between their shoulders so you can keep
track of your kid. That's not Big Brother; that's dad..." Reference: http://hardware.silicon.com/servers/0,39024647,10003014,00.htm (McNealy echos the "that's not Big Brother, that's dad theme with familial electronic tracking in a Sun newsletter at http://wwws.sun.com/software/sunone/boardroom/newsletter/0303mcnealy.html ) So I am very interested when solid documented leads for human implant and tracking schemes show up. There have been a lot of false leads and media hoaxes in this area. Sometimes, I've gotten "burned" by hoaxes over theyears. (One I followed all the way personally back to the source was the "ID Sniper" rifle shown on http://www.empirenorth.dk/ and presented at a Chinese
police equipment expo a couple of years ago. The rifle is a art project -- and a fake -- by a Danish artist Jakob Boeskov. I got to meet him at an art show in New York City this spring. See http://www.jakobboeskov.com/ ) Sampling of Some Current Documentable Privacy & Liberties Issues (RFID and non-RFID):* Virginia state government is considering RFID and biometric technologies for
its drivers licenses. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,65243,00.html?tw=wn_6polihead * National ID and checkpointing prospects in some recent "9/11 Commission" legislation legislation such as HR 10. http://www.cdt.org/action/patriot2/* Proposal to extend the current voluntary frequent flyer pre-screening to a mandatory requirement for air people who'll fly in the USA. (Yeah, that will
make us safe, right! <sarcasm>) (I was looking for an online reference but it's going to take a while. A rpint version was published in a recent issue of Privacy Journal.) Also see the Practical Nomad site for more on travel privacy issues such as "Secure Flight" passenger data analysis : http://www.hasbrouck.org/Finally, for some info on RFIDs (although a different viewpoint than Declan's
<grin>), Sheri, take a look at the Spychips site. http://www.spychips.org/ Thank you for your zeal, Sheri, even if we have differnce on the particular homeless tagging item. J.D. Abolins Meyda Online Info Security, Privacy, and Liberties Studies Lawrenceville, NJ USA
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 20:37:34 -0700 (PDT) From: Sheri Grutz <sgrutz () yahoo com> To: declan () well com Dear Declan, As you may very well know, its not just UPI's credibility on the line here; the government can make your life a living hell for exposing truths like this, the least of which is watching you by satellite, the most, electronic torture. Perhaps that is why you declared this article an April Fool's joke. This does not help me as I inform coalitions for the homeless of the perils of this brave new world. I really wish we had something to back this up. Nonetheless, I have started a petition which can be read at: www.petitiononline.com/sg061169/petition.html -Sheri
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