Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author) "Imagine a world of no more privacy..." (more)
Key Phrases: fabric antenna, patient misidentification, smart shelf, United States, New York, Postal Service (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

As you walk down the street, a tiny microchip implanted in your tennis shoe tracks your every move; chips woven into your clothing transmit the value of your outfit to nearby retailers; and a thief scans the chips hidden inside your money to decide if you’re worth robbing. This isn’t science fiction; in a few short years, it could be a fact of life.

Spychips takes readers into the frightening world of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).While manufacturers and the government want you to believe that they would never misuse the technology, the future looks like an Orwellian nightmare when you consider the possibilities of surveillance and tracking these chips embody. Combining in-depth research with firsthand reporting, Spychips reveals how RFID technology, if left unchecked, could soon destroy our privacy, radically alter the economy, and open the floodgates for civil liberty abuses.

About the Author

Dr. Katherine Albrecht is the founder and director of CASPIAN, an international consumer group. Dubbed the "Erin Brockovich" of RFID by Wired magazine, she is one of the leading voices for privacy in today's fast-changing, high-tech world. Katherine holds a doctorate in education from Harvard University.

Liz McIntyre is an award-winning investigative writer with a flair for exposing corporate shenanigans and bureaucratic misdeeds. She serves as CASPIAN's communications director and has been the master strategist for many of the organization's most successful media campaigns.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Plume (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452287669
• ISBN-13: 978-0452287662
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #349,851 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing book - paints a pattern of privacy abuse., September 30, 2005

By	Stuart Gardner "www.sdgardner.com" (Fair Lawn, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID (Hardcover)

This book covers, in detail, the existing use of RF technology to violate consumer privacy. RF chips are small and innocuous. RF chips can easily be seen as a benign technology if used appropriately (for example to reduce shoplifting by enhancing loss protection capabilities of retail stores and improved stock management).

The authors have identified numerous examples of multinational companies misusing RF chip technology.

The research behind this book appears both thorough and comprehensive. The use of statements lifted from patents really helps the authors make their case that these chips are likely to be put to use in ways the majority of us would find disturbing if not repugnant.

Negatives: the style of writing is very sensationalist. The mix of editorial comment and research lessons the impact of some of the material presented. The material sometimes lacks context: almost any technology can be abused. Also, in some instances loss of privacy may be a reasonable trade off for improved service/protection.

Also, RF Chips are not a unique risk (add data mining, "smart" chips and even car electronics - e.g. the chip that operates airbags,in some models, will record the impact speed of an accident).

The book draws on examples from around the World. US consumers have more to worry about than Canada, Australia and Europe where there is at least some protection from data protection legislation. US Privacy legislation lags behind (could this possibly be the result of lobbying by corporate political action committees?).

The bottom line is that the authors are right to raise a very loud warning to act on misuse of this technology, before it is too late.

54 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifying facts; brilliant delivery, September 27, 2005

By	Claire Wolfe "freedom and privacy activist" (Hardyville, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID (Hardcover)

RFID chips are tiny tracking devices that can be attached to or embedded in nearly anything -- and ultimately will be if industry and governments have their way. They broadcast information about an item and its possessor to any device capable of "pinging" them.

If we don't prevent it, these devices will soon be used to track and control everyone from cradle to grave.

As a privacy activist, I thought I'd been watching RFID implementation closely. But I didn't know the half of what Katherine and Liz reveal in Spychips.

The authors have dug deep into the files of the U.S. patent office. They've attended RFID industry conferences as "moles." They've traveled to Europe and throughout the U.S., uncovering RFID chips -- and disingenuous spin about RFID chips -- in unexpected places.

From this voluminous research and years of activism (Katherine is the founder and head of the privacy group CASPIAN and Liz is its communications director) they've produced a slender, info-packed, and yet highly readable -- and reasonably priced -- hardbound book.

I really must stress, and stress again, that word "readable." Spychips is about a truly frightening topic and a highly technical one, as well. But the book is lucid, concise, witty and at times reads like a novel. Call it a technological thriller.

It is also impeccably factual. You can rely on the info you'll get here. And I hope millions WILL rely on it. If we're to have any hope of preserving privacy and freedom in the future, we must ALL know what Katherine and Liz tell us so eloquently.

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Spychips" is to RFID misuse what "Silent Spring" was to pesticide misuse. A must read!, March 30, 2006

By	Groovy Vegan (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID (Hardcover)

"Spychips" is a thoroughly researched, very well-written look at the multitude of ways Radio Frequency ID (RFID) chips can be misused by corporations, criminals and government. At the lower end of the misuse spectrum, retailers and marketers compile information on all your purchases. Perhaps you'll get some junk mail, or if you purchase soil and grow lights, an unwanted knock at the door from law enforcement. Stores will be able to limit your returns based on your history.

Further along the spectrum, thieves and stalkers will be able to scan your shopping bag, purse; or even suitcase at airport baggage claim knowing all the contents. You'll no longer be able to hide that Rolex watch in your pocket or cheap suitcase.

The worst-case scenarios involve the government forcing us to have identification chips implanted in our bodies. (This techology already exists and volunteers have had chips implanted in their bodies.) Chips would give governments the means to deny us everything from an elevator door opening to commerce to freedom to our lives. Chapter 16, "The Nightmare Scenario" which examines what would have happened if Hitler had RFID technology, is especially sobering. In case someone's naïve enough to think there never be another Hitler, check out the table titled, "20th Century Democide" on page 213. Hundreds of millions of innocent people have been killed by their own governments in the 20th century alone.

In the likely event you're thoroughly depressed by the time you finish chapter 16, the last chapter, (17) gives the message that consumers can put an end to spychip use and misuse. I'm not so sure about that, but the authors know far more about this than I do. They write, "if consumers don't want spychips-and act on that preference in the market-companies will stop using RFID, plain and simple." They list steps consumers can take to protect our privacy from misuse of this technology, categorized in small-, moderate- and bold steps.

I very highly recommend this book as a must-read. Katherine Albrecht devotes her career to researching and warning the public about RFID misuses/retail privacy violations, and is extremely knowledgeable, as is her colleague Liz McIntyre. The book is very easy to understand, even if you know nothing about computers or RFID technology, and is entertaining in parts with sardonic humor and song parodies. They even tell you about the fire they started when they tried to nuke an RFID chip in the microwave! Albrecht and McIntyre assume a skeptical readership and debunk just about any argument the reader might have. The book has pre-debunked every argument minimizing the dangers of RFID chips that I have seen in the one- and two-star reviews below!

Albrecht and McIntyre have done society a huge favor by writing this book, just as it would have been nice if someone in the 1930s had written a book for the public on the misuses of atomic energy.