Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat 549
ndansmith writes "Bruce Perens posts in his blog about an amusing encounter between Richard Stallman and United Nations security at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. It seems that RFID technology, which Stallman opposes for privacy reasons, was used in the identification badges for the conference. From the blog: 'You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently.' During a keynote speech, Stallman also passed around the tinfoil for other to use as well. It seems that UN security was not amused, however, as they would not let him leave the room for some time." What makes this even funnier, of course, is that tin foil hats won't stop them.
brilliant... (Score:2, Interesting)
Fucking hilarious.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Tin/Aluminium? (Score:1, Interesting)
Kudos to him for doing this, though, as regardless of what you think about the man, there are still a lot of problems and risks to be ironed out with RFID, not just the privacy concerns that Stallman has, and personally I'd be in two minds about carrying anything that relied on such technology until those issues are resolved - admittedly, though, I'd probably be OK with it for something like this, I'm more concerned about RFID passports and credit cards, given the recent issues (I'm too lazy to look them up on the
For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, guess what? As predicted by a quick examination of human nature, they WON'T let you block your tracking devices. You will not have a choice as to when and where you will be tracked. This is just the very beginning, the closing of the gate, of our World Prison.
Tell me why again we have to have tracking devices embedded on our persons? I seem to have missed the reasoning. Terrorism?
Great image for the FOSS movement (Score:3, Interesting)
I respect RMS. He's contributed a lot to the FOSS movement (but no, sorry, what I run is Linux). Several of his writings are thought-provoking. But on the other hand, we all want to see Linux become mainstream. Is this the image we want corporations to have about FOSS? One of its leaders childishly and purposefully gets in trouble with UN security for shielding his pass in aluminium foil. A movement led by immature pranksters. Is that the image we want?
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:5, Interesting)
Yell at the authority-maddened idiots who thought they could harrass Stallman, not Stallman. He made the point beautifully. It's about the POWER, not about security.
What do you think the guvmint or the cops will do when you block THEIR tracking, even symbolically? Arrest, jail, prison, inevitably.
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:4, Interesting)
Ok, now that I did the obligatory Matrix quote, here is why I think tracking every single individual's movements, purchases, and even thoughts is an inevitable future: the technological advances allow government bodies to have the most control over the population (look what is happenning in the most developped countries: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, etc.) The government has the will to control the population. Ironically it is the population that gives the government that power. Apparently the small number of people who are able to innovate and come up with technological progress are mostly the ones who understand how this new tech can be abused to give the government more power and to take away freedoms of the people. Unfortunately the majority of the people are not the ones responsible for the innovation, they are just 'consumers', they have no clue. But they are the majority and they are always ready to trade their freedoms for some illusion of security and/or convenience. The innovation suggests new technical possibilities, the government needs a stable system to make its only income: the taxes. Thus the government protects and maximizes its source of income: a stable regime with powerful system of controls that absolutely prohibit any dissident behaviour that leads to decreases in government income. The population in majority agrees to anything that creates illusion of security/safety/convenience etc., and basically gives up the idea that individuals should be responsible for their own behaviour and actions to themselves first. It looks more and more like an ant colony or a bee hive, doesn't it?
It looks like it is the inherit property of a system - to maximize government control and power and minimize individual freedoms in order to maximize government's income. The problem is a system based on taxes.
Thus, see my previous [slashdot.org] posts [slashdot.org].
Re:You Westerners are funny (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps you'll find that "true evil" can turn wusses into heroes. We sit on our fat asses, because we can.
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Interesting)
If we hired smart security people, overall we'd be more secure.
I have my Washoe County, Nevada, work card for security guard work in my wallet. When are you going to step up to the plate and be one of those smarter security guards?
Fill the void!
Hammer time? (Score:4, Interesting)
--Mike--
Re:Hmm (Score:2, Interesting)
I applaud both Stallman and U.N. security (Score:5, Interesting)
It has probably brought the matter to the attention of U.N. officials who honestly didn't know or understand the problems with RFID, and regardless of their visible behavior I am sure that it educated the security people as well. I don't know whether this in itself will change policy, but I'd bet a nickel that behind the scenes there have been some discussions and briefings.
Now, the U.N. security people did as close to the right thing as you can imagine them doing. You can't expect them to make an instant technical analysis of the situation. The facts they were presented with were: a) the badges are being used for security, to make sure that only authorized people attend; b) Stallman was conspiciously doing something or other with the badges; c) they had no way of knowing whether it was any kind of security threat, but at least the possibility existed. Screwing around with a security pass is suspicious, even if you don't know what exactly to suspect, and even if in this case it was innocent.
They didn't arrest him. They didn't beat him up. They created the barest minimum of disruption and inconvenience to Stallman and to the meeting.
I say Stallman was effective, on a matter that has some real society importance. And I say the security guards' response was measured and sensible.
Re:Oh Please... (Score:4, Interesting)
That was in 1997. STFU until you pay your debts, deadbeat.
mentioning the child rapes
Seriously, STFU [google.com].
Most infamous of which is the gang rape of a japanese schoolgirl in the 90's, which so outraged the population that the base is being relocated.
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Go to McDonalds for lunch.
2. ask the cashier to speak with the manager.
3. Ask manager if he'll kindly nuke the rfid badge for 30 seconds - offer $5 if necessary.
4. Return to conference with smelly, but broken rfid badge, and faux indignant suprise when the goons at the gate freak.
Re:Tin/Aluminium? (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, beeing an electrical engineer,
Okay, maybe you can explain something I've been trying to figure out for a while.
If you wrap any RF transmitting device in tin OR aluminum foil, you are going to completely shield the device and no RF will get in or out because the foil would act as a farady cage.
This doesn't fit with what I learned in college physics, yet I hear it all the time. From what I learned, a Faraday cage should prevent RF energy from entering the cage, but not from leaving it.
As I recall, a Faraday cage works because of Gauss' law, which tells us the net flux through any closed, conducting surface is dependent only upon charges inside the surface. Charges/fields outside of a closed conducting surface have no effect inside the surface. So if you place a conductive wrapper in an EM field (like, say, the field that powers a passive RFID or contactless smart card), what essentially happens is that the field induces a current in the wrapper, flowing around the enclosed volume, rather than passing through. That makes sense to me.
But, according to Gauss' law, a charge inside a closed surface *does* produce a net flux out through the surface. So a transmitter *inside* the foil wrapper will be able to pass a signal through the wrapper with no problem. I think the shape of the conductor will alter the shape of the field somewhat... I'm not sure.
So, is there something other than Gauss' law at work in a Faraday cage? Why is it that a conductive surface will block interior fields? Or will it?
In this particular case, preventing exterior fields from reaching the RFID is sufficient because the RFID has no power source of its own. What if it did, though? Would the aluminum foil actually do any good? Also, I know from practical experience that placing a conductive layer just on one side of a contactless smart card will render it inoperative. It doesn't even matter if the tinfoil is between the card and reader. Anyone know why that might be? Does the conductor just "smear" the signal enough that communication is no longer possible? Or is there something else going on?
Re:Oh Please... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll bet that there is no reason we should pay 25%. We are one of 185 countries. We are one of I believe 7 on the permanent security council. The US I doubt has 25% of world economic output either, so I can't determine any other reason other than "the US should pay". Nice logic.
I don't get the sense of entitlement people have. What's your country paying?
Re:Just a question.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I wonder if he's really a moron... (Score:3, Interesting)
I have no doubt that if his driver's license used RFID, RMS would cover that too. The reason is that RFID is fundamentally different than a normal ID, because when a normal ID is in your pocket other people can't read it. When a RFID is in your pocket, other people still can. If you can't understand that difference, perhaps someone other than RMS is the moron, eh?
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:4, Interesting)
The Linux kernel couldn't have been developed without GNU tools, but you don't call something developed under Windows with Microsoft tools "MS-whatever" do you?
Although the GNU tools are still a healthy part of this complete Operating System, it's just rude to assume that everything that isn't part of the Linux kernel is GNU. KDE isn't GNU. The YUM package maintainer is not GNU. Most of the GUI system management tools are not GNU. Apache is not GNU. The drivers and kernel are not GNU. It's not the case that the bulk of your typical distribution is Linus' kernel wrapped around nothing but GNU software.
What does this have to do with wrapping foil around his RFID tag? Well, it's all about drawing attention to him and his organization. The things he does are not about being "right" (aluminum foil isn't necessarily going to have an effect on RFID) as they are to get exposure for GNU and the FSF.
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:3, Interesting)
the BSDs are good, but they aren't as good at building a community sense.
The GPL is great at giving developers a way to share their software, but keeping a leverage against badly behaved distributors.
Re:Oh Please... (Score:3, Interesting)
You might question if they were late or whatever, but they went there and without political or monetary interest. The US was there (in fact they used HU airfields for their runs).
My point: the UN does stuff, they help where they can, they feed the hungry.
My father worked for years on industry development for the U.N. (as an electrical engineer and economist with aluminium industry) in places like Mozambique and other places that you probably do not see in your average passport. Many places where there were armored vehicles parked on the corner with angry uneducated people shooting at anyone at sight.
I know for a fact that the UN does a lot and there are supporters who go where they can and die if they have to for a cause.
What do you want? More uncontrolled power so anyone can jsut run-down a country for oil? Or the UN should run into Zimbabwe and have a UN version of black hawk dawn (I know it was Somalia), without support for other big countries because they only want more oil or only want nuclear power for themselves?