Loss of Privacy

The United Nations currently coordinates international postal services through the Universal Postal Union, but it feels that the speed of deliveries could be increased with the use of RFID.

Unlike private delivery services such as FedEx, regular postal delivery is not operated by a single organization. Consumers buy stamps in one country that have to get a piece of mail into another country and through the domestic mail system there to a particular destination. The UPU sets quality-of-service rules for how long that should take, as well as standard origination and termination fees for countries to settle the cost of getting the mail where it’s going.

So far, the UPU has monitored letter delivery by sending special test letters. Independent analysts record the departure and arrival of these test letters, but at the gateway offices where letters leave and enter countries, postal workers themselves record the time. That leaves the process open to manipulation, said Akio Mayiji, quality of service coordinator at the UPU.

The RFID system instead will use tags hidden inside envelopes, which will be read automatically as they pass through RFID portals at the international gateway offices. Reva Systems’ TAP (Tag Acquisition Processor) servers will collect the letters’ unique tracking numbers and pass them on to be correlated into delivery reports. The UPU wants countries to pay each other based on the quality of service their letters receive, and more detailed measurement will help it do so, Miyaji said.

RFID is already used to monitor mail in some developed countries, but the systems they have deployed use “semi-active” tags that cost US$20 each. A relatively new global standard for RFID, called Gen2, allowed the UPU to introduce passive-tag systems that cost far less: Each tag only costs about US$0.30, and the UPU considers them disposable. The lower cost should make RFID accessible to all of the UPU’s 191 member countries. The scope of quality testing can also be expanded, so tens of thousands of test letters are moving through the system at any time.

21 countries will be testing the new tags, including India, South Korea, Switzerland and Togo.  Countries with the older RFID tags will also be participating.  These include Mexico, Norway, and Saudi Arabia.

I wrote a little over a year ago about new Ford trucks that were available with ToolLink and RFID.  It allows owners to keep track of their tools via RFID.  Here’s a rundown on the costs.

Ford trucks now keep a running tally of what construction tools are back on board and which may have been left on the job site. It’s part of Tool Link, a $1,120 RFID tag option for Ford trucks. That sounds like a lot until you leave a $1,000 sliding compound miter saw on the job site overnight and it’s not there in the morning. Ford developed Tool Link with DeWalt. You get a 50 ID tags (in DeWalt yellow, of course) that you apply to tools, an RFID scanner and software for creating a database, and two RFID antennas that go in the truck bed and monitor what’s onboard and what’s missing. You monitor the tool status via the Ford In-Dash Computer. One button press brings up a screen that shows what’s missing that you had on board earlier in the day.

While it’s meant for construction tools, there’s no reason it couldn’t be used, say photo or video equipment. A carbon fiber tripod can cost $500-$1,000, a pro’s digital camera or HD camcorder many times that. You don’t think anyone could be so stupid as to leave a digital camera on the work site, when you bring two or three, those things can happen.

While it’s a lot of money for such a system, when weighed against constantly having your tools lost or stolen on a construction site, it might just be worth the investment.

Listen to The Last Hope‘s talk on the REAL-ID Act and RFID Legal and Privacy Implications.

Listen to the MP3.

The Daily Mail and ComputerWeekly are reporting that computer expert, Adam Laurie, was able to clone the UK national ID card in 12 minutes.  The British government claims that it is uncloneable.

Using a Nokia mobile phone and a laptop computer, Laurie was able to copy the data on a card that is being issued to foreign nationals in minutes.

He then created a cloned card, and with help from another technology expert, changed all the data on the new card. This included the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and other information.

He then rewrote data on the card, reversing the bearer’s status from “not entitled to benefits” to “entitled to benefits”.

He then added fresh content that would be visible to any police officer or security official who scanned the card, saying, “I am a terrorist – shoot on sight.”

The new ID card for foreign nationals and British passports also use this same technology.  And the ID cards are mandatory if you want a driver’s license or passport.  So, you can now be forced by the government to have your information placed in a central database, have a card that can easily be cloned and your identity stolen, and, best of all, you get to pay for the privilege.