[LINK] Fwd: [Politech] John Gilmore's horrific, dystopian view of an RFID world [priv]

[Roger Clarke]

Too good not to risk multiple postings ...


>Subject: Re: [Politech] Computerworld falls for RFID "sniper rifle" hoax?
>Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:21:35 -0700
>From: John Gilmore <gnu at toad.com>
>To: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
>CC: politech at politechbot.com
>References: <408F2D74.8040301 at well.com>
>
>Nice hoax.  But the opposite is more likely to come true.  Rather than
>shooting RFID chips into people, people with RFID chips already in or on
>them will be shot.  People with RFID chips in their clothing, books,
>bags, or bodies could be targeted by "smart projectiles" that will zero
>in on that particular Smart.
>
>Today's "smart bombs" already self-guide toward laser-identified or
>RF-identified or heat-identified targets.
>
>The technical challenges involved in guiding a missile toward an RFID
>chip would probably relate to the speed of the missile compared to the
>range at which the RFID chip can be made to respond and the agility
>with which the missile can change course.
>
>Such a missile could probably more easily be designed to *arm* or
>*trigger* its explosion when a particular RFID chip is in range.  That
>way, if fired at innocents, it would be a dud that would only cause
>minimal damage, but if fired at the right person, it would blow up.
>
>But we need not get so science-fiction about it.  Rather than bring
>the mountain to Mohammed, let's let Mohammed come to the mountain.
>Let's see what this technology would do for an everyday practice of
>today's freedom fighters who are defending their country by opposing
>one of the US Government's current wars of occupation.  In order to
>comply with government labeling mandates resulting from the huge
>Firestone tire recall, Michelin has announced that it plans to put
>RFID chips in every tire it sells to car makers (and eventually
>in every tire they sell).  Similar plans are afoot for many other
>automotive and personal products.
>
>Imagine being able to bury an explosive in a roadway -- that would
>only go off when a particular car drove over it.  You could bury these
>bombs months in advance, in any or every major or minor roadway.  You
>could change the targeting whenever you liked (e.g. via driving a
>radio-equipped car over it and transmitting new instructions to it).
>You could give it a whole list of cars that it would explode for, or a
>set of cars and dates.
>
>If you put such bombs throughout a metropolitan area, a car could
>drive through the area for months without triggering anything --
>taking evasive routes, etc.  But on the appointed day, each the bombs
>surrounding the area would know to go off when that same car passed.
>Without the responsible parties having to visit the sites later than
>days or weeks beforehand (making them hard to catch or deter).
>
>Such explosives would be detectable by their radio emissions -- RFID
>pings.  But in a world where RFID pings are being transmitted by
>everything around you, including every cellphone and doorframe and cash
>register and ATM machine and camera and car and computer and palmtop
>and parking meter and cop car ... you won't even notice.  Places with
>"congestion pricing" like central London, or any toll road anywhere, would
>even have plenty of active RFID readers buried in the roadway already.
>And I'm sure the cops anywhere would love to have them for tracking
>where everybody is driving -- individually.
>
>Welcome to automated personal death.  Courtesy of RFID and leading
>shortsighted global corporations, with government encouragement.
>
>	John
>
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-- 
Roger Clarke              http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

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Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program, University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Baker Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre, U.N.S.W
Visiting Fellow in Computer Science, Australian National University