p2pnet - rss feed: New! Levi spy jeans
p2p news / p2pnet: Some Levi jeans are already wired for sound, but Levis able to call in on wearers’ whereabouts?
Levi Strauss is “violating a call for a moratorium on item-level RFID by spy-chipping its clothing,” say CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion) activists Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre.
“What’s more, the company is refusing to disclose the location of its U.S. test,” says McIntyre, quoting Levi Strauss spokesman Jeffrey Beckman as confirming his company’s chipping program, saying “a retail customer is testing RFID at one location [in the U.S.]…on a few of our larger-volume core men’s Levi’s jeans styles.”
“Make no mistake,” McIntyre declares. “Today’s RFID inventory tags could evolve into embedded homing beacons. Unchecked, this technology could become a Big Brother bonanza and a civil liberties nightmare.”
Albrecht says she believes the companies are keeping silent about the US test location to prevent a consumer backlash.
Clothing retailer Benetton was hit by a consumer boycott in 2003 when she revealed company plans to embed RFID tags in its Sisley line of women’s clothing, she says, adding:
“The resulting consumer outcry forced the company to retreat from its plans and disclaim its intentions.”
Also See:
wired for sound - iPod power Levi jeans, January 11, 2006
April 29th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
“recieing”
huh? wtf!
April 29th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
huh?
April 29th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Akshally, it wasn’t them. It was me. I speeled ‘receiving’ rong in my pic.
The deloiberate mistake fore the day?
Cheers!
April 29th, 2006 at 6:13 pm
That should take care of that RFID tag. I think. *scratches head*
April 29th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
well, ya got me. i thought it was an official poster ad.
April 29th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
as long as they don’t have video capability
April 29th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
now THAT’S an idea lol
April 30th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
The governments and Mega-corporations around the world will not be satisfied until every peon is stamped, tagged, logged, and taxed into oblivion. The answer short of world wide uprising is to use the same technology that is used against us against our oppressors. The choices are already out there. The government created ARPANET, and the resulting internet and networking technologies are beginning to make the cartel controlled media empires obsolete. Pissed off hackers can easily write software that will cause the cartels and governments to stamp and log themselves into oblivion, and worms are currently the most effective software distribution tool.
The millions of wireless routers, NIC cards, and computers out there can be turned into a very widespead network infrastructure that is owned by the people in general. Some people are already experimenting with Mininets, FreeWans, and other networks that operate completely independent of the Internet. Even a small box of DVD’s (encrypted) sent by snailmail or courier allows a huge transfer of information. When Congress or any other government body overtaxes, over monitors, or otherwise over-restricts the Internet, then people will use alternative ways to communicate. Current technologies already provide ways for people to communicate independently of the government-cartel infrastructure.
RFID is eventually going to be used in nearly every piece of clothing or consumer item we purchased. Since many governments promote recycling, I will do the same. When RFID readers become widely available for a reasonable price. Embedded RFID chips can be removed and covertly planted on the verhicles, clothes and items belonging to government officials. RFID readers contained in peoples’ vehicles (or even along side of the roads) can be connected to computers. These computers can form a tracking network. The question is, “How likely is that to happen?” Not very likely until some person or group comes up with a way to sell this idea to criminal elements or dissident organizations or that someone is a criminal, dissident, or hacker himself.
The wide availability of high power lasers in some industrial and consumer electronics allow people to create devices that can be used to blind others at a long distance. Just as computer and networking technology is making the printing press and media cartels obsolete, various types of consumer electronics may do the same with the gun.
It is amazing at how a cheap $30 CVS disposable camcorder can be converted into night vision equipment. It is also remarkable that many different types of consumer digital cameras can be converted to covertly strip search people. The government spends several tens of thousands of dollars on this type of technology while hackers spend less than a few hundred.
Since it is mostly impossible to get a fair hearing in traffic court, technology can be easily adapted to foil the tools used by governments to extort fines from drivers. Simple high gloss clear-coat paint and a few LED’s can be used to prevent most digital cameras from reading licence plates. A $5 laser pointer can be used to block the view of a $5,000 police camera. A home made device that quickly and randomly changes the brightness of an array infrared LED’s can easily confuse the brightness (or AGP) control circuitry of most electronic cameras. A high powered BB gun can permantly disable the same camera. A piece of tape or paper can render a camera useless until the tape is removed.
A $100,000 X-ray system used to monitor the entrance to a building is useless if people can leave the same building through an unmonitored exit (prevent the door from locking when one leaves will allow that person to re-enter). A loud fire excape exit alarm can be easily muffled by duct tape over the buzzer (if a high pitched alarm) or by piercing the buzzer with a needle.
Am I worried about being on some list for posting this? Yes, slightly. When the governments come after people like me or the millions of bloggers out there, they will be having much bigger problems. Governments are now having a hard time holding up under the tons of policies, paperwork, and other obstacles that they themselves created. I can truly see the “fall of Babylon” as spoken obout in the Bible.
When technology is created, us peons are usually the last ones to be able to buy the technology. However, it is us peons who usually come up with new and novel ways to use the technology that becomes available to us. The same technology that is used against us can also be used to protect us. Technology is only useful if the people who are using the technology is competent. Many of those who make the policies that pit technology against people do not understand how the technology works. The rules that they create may be just the loophole that allows someone the use of a technology to wreak havoc. They do not understand that the policies that they make can easily turn around and bite them in the a$$!
April 30th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Let’s get em!
May 1st, 2006 at 4:32 pm
why does they call it ’spy’ jeans?
May 1st, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Too bad about those metal buttons. :-/
*ZAP*
May 1st, 2006 at 6:43 pm
What if I pay cash for my jeans? How will they know who they are tracking?
RFIDs are just another technology that has potential for abuse. There are so many others just as bad. I give up…
When the guv starts making noise about doing away with cash then we know we are in real trouble.
But then US bills have metallic strips in them now. Are they RFIDs?
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:32 pm
No, I believe the metallic strips in US money is to make counterfeiting more difficult. I like the idea of hacking RFID tags, although I’m sure they will apply the DMCA or another such idiot law to harshly prosecute anyone caught doing that.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:59 pm
I may be wrong here, but I’m pretty sure that cash can be detected by some kind of scanners when being transported through customs at airports just as one example. The metal strip is what the “detectors” pick up on. Maybe it’s as simple as showing up on the x-ray machines. Anybody know the facts?
May 4th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Currently cash doesn’t use RFID, but there were plans mooted to embed RFID into cash so you could trace it about the place. A lot of criminal transactions take place in cash, so if you can track these, you can literally follow the money trail, and make counterfieting harder at the same time.
Of course what will happen is that cash transactions will be linked to personal ids and then sold off to the marketing companies, and used by the Feds to track anything and everything.