I missed the memo, but I did see the movie ;-)
Posted on 07/23/2010 2:37:58 PM PDT by deport
NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is putting electronic identification tags on men's clothing like jeans starting Aug. 1 as the world's largest retailer tries to gain more control of its inventory. But the move is raising eyebrows among privacy experts.
The individual garments, which also includes underwear and socks, will have removable smart tags that can be read from a distance by Wal-Mart workers with scanners. In seconds, the worker will be able to know what sizes are missing and will also be able tell what it has on hand in the stock room. Such instant knowledge will allow store clerks to have the right sizes on hand when shoppers need them.
The tags work by reflecting a weak radio signal to identify the product. They have long spurred privacy fears as well as visions of stores being able to scan an entire shopping cart of items at one time. ......
"This is a first piece of a very large and very frightening tracking system," said Katherine Albrecht, director of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.
Albrecht worries that Wal-Mart and others would be able to track movements of customers who in some border states like Michigan and Washington are carrying new driver's licenses that contain RFID tags to make it easier for them to cross borders.
Albrecht fears that retailers could scan data from such licenses and their purchases and combine that data with other personal information. She also says that even though the smart tags can be removed from clothing, they can't be turned off and can be tracked even after you throw them in the garbage, for example. ....
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(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
bump
Manny can be killed by simple flexing.
Like if you bend open a paperclip and flex
it a few times the metal fatigues and breaks.
This inventory is already automatically done at the register. When you buy a product, it is automatically removed from the store's inventory. They already know how many items are in stock. There's another motive for this.
Not Manny, Many, I like Manny too much to kill him.
“Manny can be killed by simple flexing.”
Why would you want to kill poor Manny?
And wouldn’t stabbing him be easier than ‘flexing’ him?
:0)
The only problem I see here is the driver’s license with RFID.
That is very wrong.
That allows tracking individuals who are carrying their license wherever they go. The license will have to be put into a shielded wallet/purse to avoid it...
As usual, the problem is with government, not industry.
Besides, they can get all this
info and more formed the scanned
UPC codes at checkout 9real time).
This seems unnecessary to me.
Fortunately, there is an irrigation canal nearby.
Good idea. I think that just returning the occasional tag to the stack of jeans will thwart their inventory system. Imagine the look on the manager's face - "we sold most of our inventory, our shelves are empty, and yet we have more pairs of jeans than we had 3 months ago."
And there is a flaw with RFID as well.
Trying to scan an entire shopping cart would be almost futile.
First. They’d have to know what is in the cart to begin with and how many ‘items’ need to be scanned.
Second. They may not pick up every item (I know, because I have to constantly ‘rescan’ missed items in my job so the count is correct).
Third. If the RFID isn’t scanned or is ‘missed’ what happens when you go through the security scanner at the door?
Instant shoplifter!
There would be no way to prove you purchased the item, because the receipt would not show it.
It’s them Bildebergers. They wants to control the world by tracking my skivvies.
Search “made in USA.”
If you only buy products made in the USA, you’ll probably never wind up in Walmart.
There are also thrift shops in most communities, if you must acquire the products of Asian sweatshops.
And the RFID Drivers licenses can be blocked with a simple cover, just like the new passport cases that incorporate a faraday cage liner.
I missed the memo, but I did see the movie ;-)
Manny Mota? Is he that stiff?
Okay you young folks...here's a business waiting to happen.
I would buy small credit card size envelopes to put my drivers licenses and credit cards in my wallet...something better (more durable) than a simple alum foil envelope will probably sell once this (RFID) news is known.
It is not about the tags in the jeans. It's about the store being set up to scan RFIDs. If they are not selective, then they will see all RFIDs, including the one in a Washington or Michigan driver's license in the wallet of a shopper.
They could have a point.
Well, most stores have cameras, yet you’re still complaining about theft. This will make theft, particularly small scale theft like price switching, much easier to accomplish without being detected. You can use a device in your pocket to switch a price on something, which is very difficult to detect on a camera. Without the RFID, where you’d have to physically switch the price tags, which is relatively easy to see on cameras.
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