RFID Technology and Targeted Individuals.

I did some research to better understand the recent mechanism that had been used to track my movements. It seems the little door opening device that I was handed by a third party had a RFID tag inside.

I did some research on RFID tags some time ago and for a time was trying to stay away from stores and companies that would be using this stuff, but with other things on the brain kind of forgot about it, till this happened.

Apparently the little door opening device is made by a company that has been a trusted name in
RFID technology for over a decade. Good to know, I don't want to be tracked by anything but the best.

Now I did some quick reading up about RFID, and how an IPOD or Cellphone could be used in conjunction with a device that has RFID tag to track another person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID

[quote] An EPC RFID tag used by Wal-Mart.Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders.

An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.

Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a (RF) signal, and other specialized functions. The second is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal. Chipless RFID allows for discrete identification of tags without an integrated circuit, thereby allowing tags to be printed directly onto assets at a lower cost than traditional tags.[/quote]

I also learnt that the smallest RFID tag can be as small as half the size of a grain of sand. I know the ones that they put into people a few years back were the size of rice grains, but I am sure it will be smaller than that now.

Anyways apparently the RFID tag uses radio waves, and ofcourse if you have a receiver that is tuned into the specific tag, you can read the signal from several feet or meters away, depending on how strong the signal is. But do Ipods have receivers that can do this?

I found an article about a Nike sport kit. Apparently it has a sensor that goes into your NIKE shoe, then there is a receiver that can be attached to an IPOD, and the IPOD then get's the signal from the RFID and then can tell you how far you walked, and all this other neet stuff.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/11/72202

[quote]Nike+ IPod = SurveillanceAnnalee Newitz 11.30.06
The Nike+ iPod consists of a small sensor (right) that fits under the pads of your Nike sneaker, and a receiver (left) that plugs into the iPod Nano.
If you enhance your workout with the new Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, you may be making yourself a surveillance target.

A report from four University of Washington researchers to be released Thursday reveals that security flaws in the new RFID-powered device from Nike and Apple make it easy for tech-savvy stalkers, thieves and corporations to track your movements. With just a few hundred dollars and a little know-how, someone could even plot your running routes on a Google map without your knowledge.

The Nike+ iPod gives runners real-time updates about the speed and length of their workouts via a small RFID device that fits into the soles of Nike shoes, and broadcasts workout data to a small receiver plugged into an iPod Nano.
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Now clearly in my case, I am not wearing NIKE shoes, but I was carrying a RFID tag that was given to me by a third party. A tag that I needed for obvious reasons. So that was the how it could be done.

The passive tag in the sensor could when prompted give out some sort of a signal, that could be picked up by these "Headphone kids", Civilian Spies with IPOD's, cellphones with RFID technology or other similar devices.

Now for me, I thought that maybe the underground stops were being announced, via the RFID tag, the same as what had previously happened with my Laptop, but I can not be sure. Again I only suspect that is what might have happened. Remember this is taking place on the underground, where radio signals should be harder to pick up, but with something like a close rage RFID tag and a receiver a few feet away, I am sure things are slightly different.
So I can confirm that A. I was carrying a RFID tag with me. B. That it is possible for IPOD's and other such devices to have a receiver what can pick up RFID signals.

Can a passive RFID tag pick up underground announcements, don't know, but I do know it can give off information, that would lead it to a target, that's enough to help me start to confirm what I was observing. I have more reading to do, cause I would like to know, ways to counteract this.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180201688
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/15/rfid-tags-attackable-by-your-cellphone/

[quote]Using these scanning techniques for cracking the crypto wasn't expressly mentioned, but Shamir did announce that a modified cellphone would have more than enough power to attack and compromise all RFID tags in the vicinity.[/quote]

Can the passive tags in RFID chips be reprogrammed? Yes they can. Found that out in this next great article.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid_pr.html

[quote]James Van Bokkelen is about to be robbed. A wealthy software entrepreneur, Van Bokkelen will be the latest victim of some punk with a laptop. But this won't be an email scam or bank account hack. A skinny 23-year-old named Jonathan Westhues plans to use a cheap, homemade USB device to swipe the office key out of Van Bokkelen's back pocket.

"I just need to bump into James and get my hand within a few inches of him," Westhues says. We're shivering in the early spring air outside the offices of Sandstorm, the Internet security company Van Bokkelen runs north of Boston. As Van Bokkelen approaches from the parking lot, Westhues brushes past him. A coil of copper wire flashes briefly in Westhues' palm, then disappears.

Van Bokkelen enters the building, and Westhues returns to me. "Let's see if I've got his keys," he says, meaning the signal from Van Bokkelen's smartcard badge. The card contains an RFID sensor chip, which emits a short burst of radio waves when activated by the reader next to Sandstorm's door. If the signal translates into an authorized ID number, the door unlocks.

The coil in Westhues' hand is the antenna for the wallet-sized device he calls a cloner, which is currently shoved up his sleeve. The cloner can elicit, record, and mimic signals from smartcard RFID chips. Westhues takes out the device and, using a USB cable, connects it to his laptop and downloads the data from Van Bokkelen's card for processing. Then, satisfied that he has retrieved the code, Westhues switches the cloner from Record mode to Emit. We head to the locked door.

"Want me to let you in?" Westhues asks. I nod.

He waves the cloner's antenna in front of a black box attached to the wall. The single red LED blinks green. The lock clicks. We walk in and find Van Bokkelen waiting.

"See? I just broke into your office!" Westhues says gleefully. "It's so simple." Van Bokkelen, who arranged the robbery "just to see how it works," stares at the antenna in Westhues' hand. [/quote]

This was for a door where they cracked the code, but I came across other articles, where they cracked the codes on passports, and medical implants, that are suppose to be uncrackable. So there is hope, ways to crack RFID chips, and so why even use them? Because eventually they want to have everything tracked, monitored and locatable.

http://news.cnet.com/2010-1069-980325.html

[quote]You should become familiar with RFID technology because you'll be hearing much more about it soon. Retailers adore the concept, and CNET News.com's own Alorie Gilbert wrote last week about how Wal-Mart and the U.K.-based grocery chain Tesco are starting to install "smart shelves" with networked RFID readers. In what will become the largest test of the technology, consumer goods giant Gillette recently said it would purchase 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology of Morgan Hill, Calif.

It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags.
[/quote]

The problem with RFID tags is they are in more and more things daily. So eventually one way these people illegally tracked me all over the city, could happen to other targets, if it's not happening already. Just a heads up. People that are concerned about privacy, should take note of this. If it can happen to one, it can happen to many.

Think about how many of us use pass cards, to enter and exit buildings, points cards that could have RFID tags, new cell phones with RFID technology.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/04/14.html

[quote]Nokia has quietly launched last month the first RFID-enabled cell phone. The Mobile RFID Kit will be available later this year and only for the 5140 model. This accessory allows the user to easily launch services and conveniently access phone functions simply by touching the phone to an RFID tag. The phone accesses the RFID tag data when an RFID reader emits a short-range radio signal that powers a microchip on the tag, allowing the ID information and other stored data to be read. Nokia doesn't intend to sell this kit to ordinary consumers like you and me. Instead, the RFID kit is designed to extend the mobility of workforce already on the move, such as security guards or maintenance people.[/quote]

There was a great article about a phone that has a reader and receiver, I came across last night, a bit more up to date than this one. Apparently by 2009, 50% of cellphones will be RFID enabled.

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C3673/

[quote]Wednesday January 26, 2005 1:09 PM CST -
Electronics and Technology Research Institute (ETRI) plans to complete development of a built in RFID reader chip that will allow cell phones to receive RFID signals. This would enable users with the device embedded into their cell phone to receive info based on their surroundings. Such as, standing in front of a movie poster and hearing the latest soundtrack from that movie, or even view a teaser trailer.

The Ministry of Information and Communication of Korea is exploring new business models combining mobile infrastructure and RFID. Their goal is to push the mobile RFID to commercial service in 2007.

Once RFID receivers are built into cell phones the possibilities are endless. For instance; buy a product off the supermarket shelf, the RFID tag will identify itself, and your phone can download the recipes associated with the product. It is a great technology; the only thing that worries me is the human branding implications. Remember 1984? [/quote]

They will soon be able to use it in most of our clothing to track us and then what?

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2008/08/14/spy-shoes-rfid-to-be-embedded-directly-into-clothing/

[quote]Spy shoes: RFID to be embedded directly into clothingHomeland Stupidity ExclusiveBy Michael Hampton Posted: August 14, 2008 7:05 pm

Protesters gathered Wednesday afternoon at the opening of the RFID in Fashion conference in New York City to urge clothing manufacturers and retailers not to embed tracking chips into articles of clothing.

The industry conference, one of several hosted by RFID Journal magazine, allows clothing manufacturers to learn the state of the RFID industry and meet with RFID suppliers and industry executives. RFID, or radio frequency identification, is a small chip with a unique identifying number which can be read from as far away as 30 feet. The RFID in Fashion conference is being held Wednesday and Thursday at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
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As I mentioned it will soon be in all of our cellphones as well, and yet we seem to almost passively trance like move forward to total enslavement.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/07/19.html
http://medgadget.com/archives/2007/05/
diagnostic_sensors_read_by_rfidenabled_cell_phones.html

[quote]A particular focus area for Gentag using RFID cell phones are diagnostic applications.
RFID sensors can be integrated into low cost disposable diagnostic devices such as "smart" disposable wireless skin patches or personal drug delivery systems and read directly with a cell phone under existing Gentag/Altivera patents.[/quotes]

I found a company that is making edible RFID tags, for medical purposes, we have already seen the attempts to implant the elderly, newborns, soldiers, and pets. Oh and McD's is getting into the game.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/05/mcdonalds-tries.html

[quote]McDonald's to stay relevant is through a new e-coupon system that it is currently testing in Japan. Called the Kasazu coupon (or contactless) it is a payment application that is downloaded into your phone and is then placed on top of an RFID reader by the user for instant payments and coupon redemption.

Many other companies are using this, such as Visa, and RFID is being used for everything from paying for parking meters to expediting border crossings in RFID-enabled passports.
According to the press release, McDonald's will begin using the tech in 175 stores and eventually expand it to the other 3,800 stores in that country. There’s no word on when they expect to move this option to U.S. stores. [/quote]

I think many of us for sometime have know where RFID and RFID technology is going. However this brings me full circle with the very real experience that I just had, which is my RFID tag device which was given to me by a third party, for something that I need, eg. Getting into my home, was also used to track me around the city, without my knowledge, or consent. Don't get me wrong, the snitches will still track me if they can, but why make it easier for them, which this did. It gave them an unseen leg up, that they had no right to have. This is one of the more violating things that I can think of in a long time, and I guess the reason for that is because it really makes the future human enslavement scenario, that much clearly for me.

Consent had to be given somewhere however. Maybe the headphone kids don't know, or take the time to wonder how someone is so conveniently being tracked, or maybe they don't care, too busy out being James Bond to care, that this predatory behaviour of being tracked like this, is also their future, and their children's futures.

Right now, it was not that hard to narrow down what was being used to track me like a criminal around the city, but in the future it could be anything, used on anyone of us, without our consent, without our permission, or knowledge, because some unseen, uncaring, unfeeling, government entity gives the open or underhanded ok for some equally unfeeling, unthinking subordinate to do such a thing. This is what's in store for all our futures if we don't start to wake up and do
something.