RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy [Hardcover]

Simson Garfinkel (Author), Beth Rosenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 16, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0321290968 | ISBN-13: 978-0321290960 | Edition: 1

“RFID is the first important technology of the twenty-first century. That’s an awesome responsibility. How can we know when and how RFID is being used? How can we make sure it is not misused? How can we exercise choice over how it affects us personally? How do we ensure it is safe? This book is a valuable contribution to the ongoing effort to find the answers.”
—From the Foreword by Kevin Ashton, cofounder and former executive director, Auto-ID Center; vice president, ThingMagic Corporation

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous as businesses seek to streamline supply chains and respond to mandates from key customers. But RFID and other new wireless ID technologies raise unprecedented privacy issues. RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy covers these issues from every angle and viewpoint.

Award-winning technology journalist and privacy expert Simson Garfinkel brings together contributions from every stakeholder community—from RFID suppliers to privacy advocates and beyond. His contributors introduce today’s leading wireless ID technologies, trace their evolution, explain their promise, assess their privacy risks, and evaluate proposed solutions—technical, business, and political. The book also looks beyond RFID, reviewing the privacy implications of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, smart cards, biometrics, new cell-phone networks, and the ever-evolving Internet. Highlights include

• How RFID and other wireless ID technologies work
• RFID applications—from gas stations and pharmacies to the twenty-first century battlefield
• RFID, privacy, and the law—in the United States and around the world
• RFID, security, and industrial espionage
• How Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can track individuals, with or without their permission
• Technical solutions to wireless ID privacy concerns—their values and limitations
• Stakeholder perspectives from EPCglobal, Inc., Gemplus, The Procter & Gamble Company, and other industry leaders
• The future of citizen activism on privacy issues

Clear, balanced, and accessible, this is the indispensable primer for everyone involved in RFID: businesses implementing or evaluating RFID; technology suppliers responding to user concerns; and policymakers and privacy advocates who want a deeper understanding of the technology and its implications.

Includes contributions from

AIM Global, Inc.
CASPIAN
Center for Democracy and Technology
EPCglobal, Inc.
The Galecia Group
Gemplus
IDAT Consulting & Education
Institute for the Future
Matrics, Inc.
MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
MIT Media Laboratory
OATSystems
Privacy Journal
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
The Procter & Gamble Company
RSA Laboratories
UCLA Department of Geography
Wayne State University Law School

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“RFID is the first important technology of the twenty-first century. That’s an awesome responsibility. How can we know when and how RFID is being used? How can we make sure it is not misused? How can we exercise choice over how it affects us personally? How do we ensure it is safe? This book is a valuable contribution to the ongoing effort to find the answers.”
—From the Foreword by Kevin Ashton, cofounder and former executive director, Auto-ID Center; vice president, ThingMagic Corporation

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous as businesses seek to streamline supply chains and respond to mandates from key customers. But RFID and other new wireless ID technologies raise unprecedented privacy issues. RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy covers these issues from every angle and viewpoint.

Award-winning technology journalist and privacy expert Simson Garfinkel brings together contributions from every stakeholder community—from RFID suppliers to privacy advocates and beyond. His contributors introduce today’s leading wireless ID technologies, trace their evolution, explain their promise, assess their privacy risks, and evaluate proposed solutions—technical, business, and political. The book also looks beyond RFID, reviewing the privacy implications of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, smart cards, biometrics, new cell-phone networks, and the ever-evolving Internet. Highlights include

• How RFID and other wireless ID technologies work
• RFID applications—from gas stations and pharmacies to the twenty-first century battlefield
• RFID, privacy, and the law—in the United States and around the world
• RFID, security, and industrial espionage
• How Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can track individuals, with or without their permission
• Technical solutions to wireless ID privacy concerns—their values and limitations
• Stakeholder perspectives from EPCglobal, Inc., Gemplus, The Procter & Gamble Company, and other industry leaders
• The future of citizen activism on privacy issues

Clear, balanced, and accessible, this is the indispensable primer for everyone involved in RFID: businesses implementing or evaluating RFID; technology suppliers responding to user concerns; and policymakers and privacy advocates who want a deeper understanding of the technology and its implications.

Includes contributions from

AIM Global, Inc.
CASPIAN
Center for Democracy and Technology
EPCglobal, Inc.
The Galecia Group
Gemplus
IDAT Consulting & Education
Institute for the Future
Matrics, Inc.
MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
MIT Media Laboratory
OATSystems
Privacy Journal
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
The Procter & Gamble Company
RSA Laboratories
UCLA Department of Geography
Wayne State University Law School

About the Author

Simson Garfinkel is a computer security researcher and an award-winning commentator on information technology. Among his twelve books are Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century (O’Reilly, 2001) and Practical UNIX and Internet Security, Third Edition (O’Reilly, 2003). A columnist for CSO magazine, Garfinkel’s columns earned the 2004 and 2005 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award. He recently received his Ph.D. in computer science from MIT.

Beth Rosenberg is a writer, editor, and journalist with fifteen years of experience in emerging technologies. She has written for the Boston Globe, Boston magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor, and edited a book for Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (July 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321290968
• ISBN-13: 978-0321290960
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,030,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Survey of RFID; present and future issues. July 24, 2006

By Stuart Gardner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This is a compilation of papers from numerous organisations with diverse opinions on how this technology will develop. RFID presents opportunities for great improvement in business efficiencies for corporations and better service for customers and consumers. The flip side is that RFID has the potential to negatively impact individual privacy more than most technologies.

What sets this book apart is that it covers both sides of the argument. The chapters authors represent most perspectives on this emerging technology:

- RFID Hardware and Software Vendors

- Organisations that have deployed RFID

- Privacy Advocates

The cases for and against RFID are both well made. RFID can make shopping easier, stock processing more efficient, speed up payment and aid loss prevention. An excellent example of where privacy concerns are outweighed by convenience is highway tolls.

At the same time, security flaws will likely become evident and individuals, organizations and governments could misuse the very same technology. RFID has the potential to be more invasive than video surveillance.

Papers within the book cover include current real world illustrations and how the technology may develop. Most importantly, this is the most comprehensive survey to date. If anyone can suggest a better one, please do write a review and refernce.

This is not a "how to" book. It does not delve into the technology or provide a detailed methodology. Given the diversity of perspectives and content it couldn't be.

This book is a must read if you want to be informed on a key emerging technology. The issues and rewards of RFID will increase as the processing power of RFID chips increase. Increase in processing power is nearly a given.

In isolation the individual papers (chapters) are good. But this is a clear instance of the the sum being greater than the parts. For my two cents, this book will have a long and useful shelf life.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars speculative deployments June 28, 2006

By W Boudville HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The chapters are written by different authors, concerning various aspects about RFID. The topics give an idea of the scope of RFID deployment. None of the chapters would be considered technical. You are not required to be an electrical engineer to follow any chapter.

One chapter talks about inserting RFID tags into livestock. In part to combat the age old problem of rustling, which still exists. The chapter has an engagingly termed section "World Livestock Roundup", which showcases RFID in livestock in several countries. The deployment is quite advanced. Already, the EU and New Zealand mandate it for all livestock, and have done so for over 5 years. Given the cost of a cow or sheep, the tags are quite affordable. This chapter is significant. Unlike virtually the rest of the book, it demonstrates RFID as already existing in a mature deployment, and not as blue sky musings.

Other chapters are more speculative. In part because when the tags might be associated with or carried by people, serious issues of privacy arise. Some deployments are described under the rubric of enhancing child safety. But the extension to adults is highly contentious. Even more so when one considers not the carrying of a tag, but the insertion of a tag into a person's skin. In the US, we can readily envisage deep discontent over this, from libertarians to the religious right.

It turns out that many of the suggested difficulties are not primarily technical. Rather, they exist in the business or social realm, and may be harder to solve.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Too important to be ignored! October 30, 2005

By CS Calude

Format:Hardcover

RFID, radio frequency identification, is one the first major

technology of the new century. After building machines

capable of doing things (nineteenth century) and machines

that can mimic thinking (twentieth century), time has come

to have machines to perceive.

The book edited by S. Garfinkel, B. Rosenberg is a balanced,

comprehensive, and digestible presentation of RFID. RFID is

not a Devil plot on spying on everyone, and it is not a

technological form of totalitarism (although there is a

potential to become each of them). RFID is a form of

enabling machines to sense. Warehouses will sense whether

they become low on stock or, perhaps, overstocked, luggage

will be routed automatically from airport to airport;

healthcare, libraries, energy, will be all influenced if

not changed by RFID. Benefits are potentially immense, but

so are the risks.

One (almost) certainty: like or not, this technology is

going to stay, so we cannot afford to ignore it. The book is

an important step towards an informed debated about its

future.