Is RFID Technology Easy to Foil?

Er, that’s a pun. Wired is reporting that aluminum foil will block the signals emitted by the radio tags that will replace bar-code labels on consumer goods. Some quotes:

Makers of RFID (or radio frequency identification) tags, along with the retailers and suppliers who plan to use them, are saying the technology they spent millions of dollars developing is too weak to threaten consumer privacy. Metals, plastics and liquids, they say, all block radio signals before they reach RFID reader devices.

“Any conductive material can shield the radio signals,” said Matt Reynolds, a principal at ThingMagic, which develops RFID systems. “There are all kinds of ways to render the tags inoperable.”

That means Coca-Cola, which eventually wants to put an RFID tag on every can of soda it sells, will have a hard time getting around the metals, plastics and liquids that block the radio signals from the tags.

Reynolds was speaking this weekend at MIT’s RFID privacy workshop, where privacy advocates squared off with companies planning to replace bar-code labels on their goods with stamp-sized RFID tags. He was one of several speakers downplaying the threat to consumer privacy posed by the tags, which assign a unique identifying code to each item.

Engineers at the meeting also presented proposals for devices that could deny RFID readers access to a tag’s information, or disable the readers by overwhelming them with useless data. They also demonstrated a device that could be used to disable, or “kill,” RFID tags at store exits.

Spam names

The incomparable Karlin Lillington has been saving some of the funnier or more amusing names in the ‘From:’ field of spam messages. Here’s her list:

Amparo K. Kilgore
Trinidad Early
Kendall Boudreaux
Kermit Tran
Constructs G. Heads (really, I swear)
Amos Bullock
Lynn L. Reenacted
Vilma Lockwood
Outage T. Prowling
Lakisha Tobin
Sterling McMullan
Judson Kilgore (clearly related to Amparo, above)
Wooding H. Pagodas
Milford N. Minor (potential presidential candidate?)
Wolan Pagan

and finally, her two favourites:

Conjurers H. Seraph
China J. Bedraggling

I particularly like Outage T. Prowling. Might use him in a novel I’m planning. I used to have a character called Mountstuart Elphinstone until I discovered that that was the name of a famous Victorian colonial administrator. Then I switched to Hiram B. Schnickelheimer III. China J. Bedraggling isn’t bad, either.

Web users still find sites difficult to use

According to Jakob Nielsen, “when public website users perform simple Internet tasks, they’re successful two-thirds of the time on average. In other words, users fail 35% of the time.”

Speaking Texan — a clarification

Further to my observation that “I might buy me a ranch” to go with my new Stetson hat, I should point out (in response to readers who accuse me of hubris) that ‘ranch’ is of course a tool used for tightening nuts.

RFID privacy fears begin to reach public attention

According to ZDnet, “A global alliance of opponents to the rollout of radio frequency identification tagging systems are demanding that companies stop deploying them until crucial issues such as privacy are addressed.

Over 30 civil liberties and privacy groups have demanded a suspension to the deployment of radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging systems until a number of issues surrounding the controversial technology have been addressed.” [ More]

All hat, no cattle

My friend and colleague Henry Happel has given me a present of this wonderful hat. It’s a Stetson, and came with a really useful phoenetic guide (by Sam Huddleston) to Texan pronounciation. For example:

Bob Warr Fants = barbed wire fence
Rat Naow = immediately
Amulants = a thang thet takes yew to the hospital when yore lag is broke
Far Angine = somethin yew call when yore house is burnin’ down
Merkan Cissen = someone born in the US of A

I’m already very fond of this hat. In fact, I think I might buy me a ranch to go with it. In the meantime, it reminds me of what Governor John Connally (a native Texan) once observed about the Bush family (who are only ersatz Texans): “All hat, no cattle”. At last, I find something that Dubya and I have in common!

John Walker’s ‘Digital Imprimatur’ paper

Extraordinary, pessimistic exegesis of the architectural changes to the Net which may turn it into an Orwellian nightmare. In a way, this paper puts flesh on the skeleton of Lawrence Lessig’s nightmares on this subject.

Gadget wars

Quentin wonders why I haven’t got one of these. Simple: I’ve got one of these instead!

So did Microsoft approach Google?

From Dan Gillmor:

“On October 31, the New York Times reported that Microsoft had discussed a buyout with Google: “According to company executives and others briefed on the discussions, Microsoft – desperate to capture a slice of the popular and ad-generating search business – approached Google within the last two months to discuss options, including the possibility of a takeover.”

Today, USA Today quotes Bill Gates as saying it never happened: “We’ve never been in any talks with Google about any acquisition thing in any way, shape or form,” Gates told USA TODAY last week.

Someone is lying.

Could it be Gates? His occasional unfamiliarity with truth is well-known. But if he was lying this time, he was doing so about something material to his company’s future, and securities laws frown on such stuff from senior corporate officers. So I’m guessing he’s telling the truth.”

Hmmm… curiouser and curiouser…

Spam Rage strikes

Wired story.

“A Silicon Valley computer programmer has been arrested for threatening to torture and kill employees of the company he blames for bombarding his computer with Web ads promising to enlarge his penis.

In one of the first prosecutions of its kind in the state that made “road rage” famous, Charles Booker, 44, was arrested on Thursday and released on a $75,000 bond for making repeated threats to staff of an unnamed Canadian company between May and July, the U.S. Attorney’s office for Northern California said on Friday.”