RFID Chips in School Uniforms Track Students (England)

[Blaze Diem]

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/devlin/17027
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How would feel about this: Tracking chips in kids' school clothing so that school officials can know their whereabouts during the school day?

Oh, it's happening. Ten students in a secondary school in the United Kingdom are being tracked through RFID implants in their school uniforms in a pilot program. Information Week reports that the kids attend Hungerhill School for ages 11-16 in Edenthorpe, England.

Add the RFID chips to increased video surveillance and fingerprinting of kids, and this is a heavily tracked generation—for safety's sake.

That extra peace of mind for adults comes with a heavy loss of privacy for kids. Do you agree with David Clouter, a parent and founder of the children's advocacy group Leave Them Kids Alone, who says taking all these precautions has the effect of treating kids like criminals? Or do you agree with the parents who have OKed the pilot program who do not find it egregiously intrusive?

One possible side effect: Uniform sales may pick up as kids try to procure extra non-RFID-tagged clothing. As security expert Bruce Schneier writes on his blog: "So now it's easy to cut class; just ask someone to carry your shirt around the building while you're elsewhere."

LINK: U.K. Kids Get RFID Chips in School Uniforms
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Do we have this in America yet?
Who profits from manufacture & sales/promotion of RFID Chips? Anyway to find out?
With such an untapped market, there are billions to be made in mandatory RFID chips.
RFID Sales managers would convince you it is for safety of students. Fear sells..fear for profit.

I see the point in knowing where your children are, from a parents point of view. But there is NO privacy when the school and anyone with access to RIFID information. And who has access to that info?
Can it be hacked by sexual predators? Kidnappers with the intent to blackmail?

Just wondering.

[SteelPenguin]

1. Hi kids....

Put your clothes in the microwave. Set on high for 5 minutes.

Depends on the frequency of the microwave but that should kill most of them.

Otherwise go online for a guide to build an RFID Zapper from a disposable camera.
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2006/01/weapons_the_rfi.html

Problem solved.

[Selatius]

3. If you're going to nuke a passport with RFID, don't! Simply use a hammer!

For those of you who are worried about RFID chips in passports.

[thereismore]

5. where exactly do you hit? the RFID is an antenna, which is like a steel

pin inside the passport's back. I can't see anyplace to hit it.

[SteelPenguin]

6. I'd go with the hand zapper for those

They're embedded in the spine. I'm not sure you could guarantee to break the antenna with the padding it has there.

I also wouldn't cook the passport in the microwave. It's insulated enough in the plastic binding that you'd have to melt the damn thing first.

No, get the disposable camera, remove the flash, rewire it, according to one of many diagrams, and it'll put out a EM burst sufficient enough to destroy any RFID device. It just requires a little bit more tinkering ability. Someone really should start making them commercially.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. RFID chips are already in use and will become more used as they get cheaper.

TAKING OFF THE TIN-FOIL HAT, I've worked with barcode applications and I'm all for RFID to come this way!

Currently, they're being used in warehouses and such that a chip can be used to identify a whole pallet of stuff - track it and send it on its way.

They're just too expensive now for most retail applications (like $2-3 each).

The standard is open, but many, many companies are developing the chips and the readers.

WHEN they come down in price, you'll be able to bag your groceries in your cart, then moving your cart through a scanner (and weighing the cart for an audit) everything you buy can be scanned in a couple of seconds. Bring it on!

FWIW, the thing *I* don't like is that these chips can contain a LOT more information than today's bar codes. Every ITEM - EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL ITEM can have its own serial number - and linking it together with your credit card (or "buyers card") if the chip remains on the item, they can track it back to you YEARS later...

[Blaze Diem]

4. That's frightening, years later, And what bothers me more is how secure,

the data collected is to hacking..Have they perfected identity theft enough to convince me that "someone" could be held accountable for a crime by RFID total identity theft?
There was a movie about this, I know it..
People can be tracked, and hunted, and killed. For necessity or for sport.