Researcher Developing Anti-RFID Device

InformationWeek reports on a recent development in the RFID space - Researcher developing Anti-RFID Device. Or perhaps, the more accurate reading would be - anti-RFID space.

Researchers in Amsterdam say they have completed a device that prevents radio frequency identification tags from being read. The university professor overseeing the project says the goal is to protect people from a technology that is gaining wide acceptance but has the potential to compromise consumer privacy.

Now, that didn't take too long to appear, did it? But the professor who is behind this technology - Professor Andrew Tanenbaum of Vrije Universiteit has a point:

"Industry thinks nothing about invading your privacy," Tanenbaum said. "European banks plan to put RFID in money, larger bills. That means a robber can walk down the street with a scanner to find out how much money you have in your pocket and determine who will make the best target."

And I was of the opinion that RFID might only affect supply chain visibility or something along those lines. However, thieving is such an age old practice that one should expect that snoops would be walking about competitors DCs with hacked RFID scanners in hand to ascertain "useful" information. But then so might Wall Street analysts.
Is there a future in the anti-RFID market?

Other companies are also developing products designed to protect consumers from RFID. Gartner Inc. research vice president Jeff Woods said RSA Security Inc., a company that protects online identities and digital assets, created the RFID blocker that works similar to the RFID Guardian Project. "The RSA blocker is a system that 'confuses' an RFID reader and prevents it from reading personal or private tags," he said. "The challenge for RSA was to define which tags were private and who had access to them."

Or should the RFID players be the one doing the legwork right now to prevent this issue of privacy from degenerating into a full blown brouhaha?
Hat tip: Derek Schaffner (ip due dilligence)
Tags: RFID, Anti-RFID, Supply Chain Visibility

posted by AJ @ 10:06 AM