Benetton Clothing to Carry RFID Tags 472
An anonymous reader writes "Clothing manufacturer Benetton has announced that they will begin embedding RFID tags in clothing for inventory control purposes. You can
read more about this at SF Gate." morcheeba adds more information: "EETimes is reporting that Benetton will be embedding a Philips RFID chip into the label of every new garment bearing the name of Benetton's core clothing brand, Sisley. The 15 million chips expected sold in 2003 will allow monitoring of garments from production to shipping, shelves and dressing rooms. The I.CODE chip (tech info) used in Benetton's labels will include 1,024 bits of EEPROM and operate at a distance of up to 1.5 meters. RFIDs look like they would be extremely uncomfortable in some Sisley clothes."
big brother (Score:3, Funny)
Re:big brother (Score:2, Funny)
Re:big brother (Score:3, Funny)
How do you disable them? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:3, Funny)
(runs for cover)
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:5, Interesting)
SW
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:2, Interesting)
Can consumers buy send/receive devices to "inventory" anything they've purchased? This may well be useful to find, say, a missing slipper, shoe, sock, etc.....or setting up your own inventory system (similar to how some folks use the barcodes to inventory and greate grocery lists), along with the creation of a RFID database (similar again to the bar code ones that exist online) and third-party applications (e.g. POS systems)...as well as fully confirm that everything in your home has the RFIDs disabled. You could check to see whether that newly purchased shirt had the RFID disabled or not, disable it, check the effectiveness of anti-RFID procedures, etc.
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How do you hack them? (Score:5, Funny)
Can I fool scanners into thinking I'm wearing original kilobuck designer duds, or that they scan as tools from the hardware store?
I can forsee the web sites popping up for scan code exchange, and I know there will be tons of creative hacks that I can't yet imagine.
Re:How do you hack them? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:2, Informative)
Take the clothes, dip in water, place in microwave, nuke for 10 seconds. If you don't see a bright flash then you're OK. If you see the flash, wave bye bye to the RFID tag that isn't there any more..
if you run the microwave longer than 10 seconds, you risk the water evaporating and the clothing catching fire. The water gives the microwave something to warm up (attack with the microwave radiation.) and if the water evaporates, your clothing is next...
And remember kids, microwaving clothes and popcorn is a good way to get that warm toasty feeling while you're watching a movie...
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:4, Informative)
A colleague was warming a bread roll. She thought it was tough, so she gave it a few more minutes. Actually, of course, it had by then completely dried out and the next step was, if not actual flames, a choking cloud of smoke. I've noticed some plastic bowls get very hot in a MW. In complex molecules there will likely be a resonance with the water frequency, weak or strong, so eventuslly everything heats up.
Anyway, all this "disable" discussion is silly. Of course, as the FA states, the tag is in the label. So cut it off.
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:3, Offtopic)
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How do you disable them? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Power supply? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Power supply? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think with this though, that they've managed to integrate it into a single piece of silicon though.
Ok, so are we gonna have a contest for the most fucked up thing to hack your clothes to scan as? Sextoys of one variety or another seem to obvious, though I bet you'd get the best faces when the security guard sees 27" Monster Double-headed Jackhammer Dildo pop up on the screen.
Re:Power supply? (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article. .
The I.CODE chip used in Benetton's labels includes 1,024 bits of EEPROM and operates at 13.56-MHz carrier frequency. It can be operated without line of sight up to 1.5 meters. The label requires no internal power supply. Its contactless interface generates power and the system clock via the resonant circuitry by inductive coupling to the reader.
Inductive simply means a magnetic field is generated by the reader, activating the curcit in the chip, much like high-security keyless entry systems work today.
Re:Power supply? (Score:3)
You mean low security. These systems use a static 32 bit code (16 bit site ID and 16 bit individual ID). The transmission is one-way, not encrypted, and a card's code can be read by anyone at any distance (equipment permitting). These things should not be used for anything important.
I'm not wearing... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I'm not wearing... (Score:3, Funny)
When do they stop? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When do they stop? (Score:3, Informative)
If you read the part where they said that returned items automatically go back into inventory, you could deduce that they are not removing the tags.
Re:When do they stop? (Score:5, Interesting)
I see this as a major convenience.
Refunds? (Score:4, Interesting)
The flip side of this is that it'll probably annoy the hell out of them when the clothes you're wearing while trying to buy a new item start registering at the checkout
Re:When do they stop? (Score:3, Funny)
Just what I need, another thing to worry about. Not only must I tape my windows to keep out nerve gas and wear a tinfoil hat to stop mind probes, but I'll have to devise some method to prevent my being shot in the ass with a tranquilizer dart and relocated to a remote swamp.
Re:Why should THEY remove it after purchase? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why should THEY remove it after purchase? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh well, on the other hand lets hope not...
Re:When do they stop? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm pretty sure that at least one of the RF ID articles has mentioned the possibility of including unique identification numbers on each chip. It's a useful feature from a non-privacy aspect in that it would allow for fine-tuned, automated inventory (as opposed to dealing with the problem of trying to figure out just how many chips are broadcasting that they are product #238).
Futhermore, the chips have 1024 bits (128 bytes) of storage. If you were to divide that up with a 32 bit company id, a 32 bit item id, and a 64 bit unique serial number, that would allow 4 billion companies to have 4 billion different products each with up to 18 quintillion different units. As long as your chip making machine is capable of automatically incrementing the serial number as it writes out each chip, there's no technical reason not to implement this system.
So I'd at least be a little vigilant. Privacy concerns may be the only thing that prevents us from being potentially trackable with this system. Fortunately, I suspect that retailers are much more interested in the benign uses (inventory tracking and such), so I have a feeling that a decent compromise will be reached (i.e. the deactivation of chips post-sale) as long as consumers stay vocal about wanting their privacy protected.
soon to be famous quote: (Score:2)
Salesperson: "Ma'am, please remove any stolen merchandise."
Woman: "But... [benetton.com]"
EMP, folks (Score:5, Insightful)
Or perhaps the manufacturers will decide to do this at the checkout counter.
Re:EMP, folks (Score:5, Funny)
Salesperson: "What are you doing with the microwave?"
Joe Freak: "I'm just warming up my lunch"
Salesperson: "In the underwear section?"
Re:EMP, folks (Score:5, Funny)
This assumes the ability to travel to a parallel universe or future time where handheld EMP guns actually exist.
Re:EMP, folks (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2)
No, but you will be able to instantly catalogue your odd socks.
Cool an EEPROM (Score:3, Funny)
New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my business (Score:3, Interesting)
IMHO, their ability to track their clothing stops when I pay money and take ownership of it.
I doubt they'll remove all the tags. I doubt consumers will know to.
I already found a sweater of my girlfriend's with one. She had asked me to snip off a scratchy tag and lo and behold, sewn inside the tag was an RFID tag. (Ann Taylor sweater? Not sure, so I won't say for sure.) Either way, if she wore it back to the store, would she show up as a repeat customer and be treated differently?
I just don't trust these things, even though I know they are pretty benign, so don't try to convince me otherwise.
Cheers,
Jim, the stubborn Luddite
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm betting they are going to destroy the tag the minute you checkout so it won't beep when you walk out the store. They'll probably use the rfid tags as a new way to put security tags on the clothing instead of those heavy dongles you see sometimes on expensive clothing.
When the whole processor id thing was introduced way back when, people threw a big fit about it. Now what average Joe these days even know about it? Believe me, if big brother wants to track you down, they're gonna track you down and it won't be using unreliable stuff like rfid tags.
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:2)
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:2)
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:2)
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:3, Funny)
They don't see each other...
They don't know they are in lacy underwear...
Hey... you are not a freak. Don't you believe anybody
that tells you that. It's bullshit and you don't have
to grow up believing that. You hear me?
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:3, Informative)
That's because the stopped doing it. Motherboard manufacturers even started shipping boards where the default setting was to disable the # in case your chip did have it. Since it's stopped, it's not a very big issue anymore.
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:2)
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:3, Interesting)
If the tags have memory, wouldn't it be possible to have a bought-bit? By setting that you won't beep and they can still track you.
If you ask me it should be mandatory to remove the tags upon purchasing the product. The abuse risk is just too great.
Just my two cents anyway.
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:3, Insightful)
They've invented a way to purify sewage water into drinkable water more pure than the water that normally comes out of the tap, but nobody is buying into it simply because they know where it came from. But in a few decades when it's too expensive to acquire fresh water for the increasingly high population, they are going to have to use alternatives like purifying sewage. By that time, everyone is going to be drinking purified sewage, yet nobody is going to even give it a second thought.
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:2)
No, because I feel it is an invasive technology that has the potential to cost you a bit of my freedom and anonymity.
When the RFID tag is smaller than a grain of rice, they can bury it in a product so that I lose the ability to decide for myself if I want to make this RFID information available to them or not.
As for everyone not caring, that's their business and their own choice.
I do care and they won't be getting my money from now on.
That's all I stated in the above post - I'm not trying to start a boycott, I'm not saying that they don't have the right to use this technology, I'm just saying that I won't support it with my cash.
Think for yourself, make your own choices.
Cheers,
Jim
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:3, Insightful)
There seems to be an awful lot of paranoia about this, and related, things. Sure, it is a potential surveillance and record keeping device. So are pen and paper and traditional, century old, photography. Just because Benetton/the CIA/the Mafia might possibly use them for surveillance, it doesn't mean that they will.
Remeber that the successfule police states - Tsarist Russia, Iron Curtain Eastern Europe, Iraq, N Korea and Comminist China today - have not depended on technology. They have depended upon having spies in every block, a complete and interlocking network of informers and informers on informers.
On of the criticisms of Western, and particularly US, unpreparedness for 9/11 was that it depended too much on technology. Intelligence agencies assumed that photo-reconnaisance, filtering emails, monitoring radio etc. would tell them everything. In fact, plots are hadtched by people talking to people, and "humint" has been unjustly neglected. This scare is the flip side of the same thing. Don't waste your time woprrying about what technology might possibly do. Worry about the political institutions might do with intelligence from whatever source. The new Department of Homeland Security is being given a lot of power. Well, OK, maybe the situation demands it. But is it getting the level of political oversight that it needs? Are the the checks and balances that were carefullly, expensively and IMO correctly (but I am a froeigner, so I don't count) built in to the Constitution being applied to this new department? From what I hear, recent anti-terrorist laws give the Executive an unprecedenteld level of power uncontrolled by the Legislature.
Don't get diverted by irrelevancies sucha s this RFID thing. It is a detail: if the Big Picture is right, any abuse of RFID will get stomped on quicly. If the Big Picture is wrong, RFID is only one of a thousand potential tools of oppression.
Re:New Title: Benetton clothing to lose my busines (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? It's cool technology (Score:5, Funny)
And of course, the very real possibility of having your own personal beowolf cluster of clothes...
"Hey baby... (Score:3, Funny)
Hah! (Score:5, Interesting)
Ottenberg said such tags could be used for "customer loyalty" rewards that could earn consumers such benefits as frequent flyer miles, free music downloads or discount coupons.
Why, while I read this, did the phrase "bread and circuses, bread and circuses..." keep on looping through my brain?
Ah well, I suppose a majority of people will be quite happy to give away their right to privacy in return for some extra frequent-flyer miles, dragging the rest of us along by default.
How much longer before they start introducing niggling little irritations if you buy with cash, and/or larger incentives if you buy with a credit card?
Re:Hah! (Score:4, Insightful)
When credit card companies stop charging merchants for credit card transactions.
Re:Hah! (Score:2)
Their what to what? Where do you live, friend, that you are guaranteed privacy? I know of a few places in the world where you are guaranteed to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures performed by the government, but that's as far as it goes.
Every time somebody says the phrase "right to privacy" in a sentence that doesn't begin with "I wish I had a," they lose credibility. There is no right to privacy. You could say that you want privacy, or that you demand privacy, or that you refuse to associate yourself with anyone that doesn't respect your privacy, but to say that you have a right to privacy is simply untrue.
Re:Hah! (Score:2)
Re:Hah! (Score:2)
For US citizens, I refer you to the Warren & Brandeis paper, titled The Right to Privacy [lawrence.edu] . And this page [uchicago.edu] has some good summaries.
Whether or not the US Government respects privacy rights is another matter entirely, but to say we don't have them is incorrect.
"Lucky undies" (Score:5, Funny)
Who am I kidding, we'd just be happy to be on a date with.
Re:"Lucky undies" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Lucky undies" (Score:3, Funny)
I think you've just done the impossible, and advanced a reason for slashdotters to get behind a privacy-destroying technology. Kudos.
Off to find that old Sony video camera...
Re:"Lucky undies" (Score:3, Funny)
That would require that
Re:"Lucky undies" (Score:2)
No X-ray vision required (Score:5, Funny)
Damn, I probably just ruined my rep with all the hotties on Slashdot. Oh, wait...
Re:"Lucky undies" (Score:2, Funny)
Re:"Lucky undies" (Score:2)
So.. into crossdressing gentlemen, I see?
Re:"Lucky undies" (Score:2)
The quoted statements are the girls thoughts on the poster who is on the date with her. You are the weakest link, goodbye.
Anti-theft device found in jeans... (Score:2)
My Question Is... (Score:2)
Proper credit... (Score:2)
Re:Proper credit... (Score:2)
catcher in the rye (Score:2)
wasted effort (Score:5, Insightful)
you ever worked retail? you evern have to do inventory yourself, instead of having the luxury of a contractor doing it for you? it kinda sucks. becing able to query a transmitter for physical inventory counts is a lot cooler that couting everything by hand/scanner. Since these tags can't be read more than 15 feet or so away, and can be fried by exposure to your microwave oven, i'd say just don't sweat it
this is just a corp. cost saving tool, to decrease overhead and save the time and money of drudge-like inventory procedures..
i'm the biggest conspiracy freak when it comes to orwellian surveillance schemes, but this technology just isn't headed in that direction.
there are much bigger fish for us to fry, if you look around and take notice of them.
Re:wasted effort (Score:4, Interesting)
By the way, since rfids respond to a frequency range, is there such a thing as an rfid scanner available that will just try out the entire spectrum and look for hits? (kind of like a port scanner I figure).
In other fashion related news... (Score:3)
lowjack for your jacket? (Score:2)
Already in use... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm surprised that no one's mentioned this... this is already in use in the US. The last time I bought clothes, I noticed an "extra" tag on the inside of the garment. It was rectangular, maybe 2 inches long by about half an inch wide. It felt like it contained something hard and had a dotted line near the seam with the clothing. To me, that meant "cut me off". I did and out popped a RFID tag. It looked very similar to the ones that are in some of my work's IBM desktops (for inventory/tracking).
Removal was simple enough... much easier than getting those $*#() ink tags off when the person behind the desk forgets to. In short, not a bid deal.
On a side note, as long as the tag is removable, why do we care about it? It makes the cost of doing business cheaper for the store. They have the advantage of hiring0 fewer people to do inventories and doing more efficient inventory. In theory, this should lead to less costly clothes and manufacturer and retailer costs go down. On the flip side, it'll mean fewer "end of season" sales but it should all average out. RFID in this case seems like it's a Good Thing.
Not a Conspriacy but... (Score:2)
Combine this with Radio Shacks old practice of asking for customer information when you buy something. Now combine this with the kind of computerized advertizing you saw in Minority Report.
"Hello, [Mr. Smith], how is that [Polo Shirt] you bought? We have a sale on [Polo Shirts] this week on the [third] floor."
I think that would be kind of neat... but then I'm trying to convince myself I already live in the future...
Where do I get a scanner for this ? (Score:5, Funny)
Another publicity stunt (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Another publicity stunt (Score:3, Interesting)
Benetton never has spokespersons. No one in Benetton's ads ever speak, or are ever attributed with speech. You just read "United Colors of Benetton".
Benetton has always been a socially conscious clothing company. The Benetton family are very active in social causes ranging from lobbying to stop war to AIDS research funding. There are a large group of people that believe murder is immoral period. Whether it is government sanctioned (such as the death penalty) or not. Benetton has also never featured its own clothing in any of its ads.
Sears was not their largest retailer. Outside of Sears Benetton has never sold their clothes anywhere other then Benetton boutiques and their catalog. The line of Benetton in Sears was a unique line (and subquality in many people's opinion) created specifically for Sears. Sears failed to market this well and therefore Benetton would not agree to making a second line.
Like most Americans you view the USA as the world. Benetton has always been wildly successful in Europe, after all, it is an Italian brand, just like Diesel. If everyone in America stopped buying Benetton it would make very little difference as this is one of their smallest audiences.
More information about RFID tags (Score:3, Informative)
One for the hackers (Score:3, Funny)
If these chips contain EEPROM, they can be hacked right? You could:
1. Confuse the checkout by having a porsche 911 in your shopping trolley.
2. Make your pants look like a rocket launcher to freak out the secret police.
3. Remotely reprogram other people's pants to look like yours, hence stealing there frequent flyer/loyalty points.
Re:One for the hackers (Score:4, Funny)
That's not a rocket launcher, I'm just pleased to see them
Shoplifters have scissors too (Score:3, Informative)
Garanimal your wardrobe with RFID! (Score:3, Funny)
Obviously, knowing what clothes go together is a useful skill, and the potential for a geekware line of clothes featuring O'Reilly animals would be cool (I'd feel right sexy in vi-guy underwear).
But why settle for an obvious (and potentially embarasing) visible tag when you can have a hidden, electronic tag that does the same thing and requires a (hackable) computing device?
Re:Hahah (Score:5, Funny)
Privacy? You pretty much give it up in more ways than one at that point!
Re:Hahah (Score:2)
Ok now, calm down. This is what you call a "Woman" (Wuh-mahn). Now the sticky mushroomy shaped thing that you have fits into the little mail-slot thing under the bikini. Be sure to ask for permission first otherwise your mushroomy thing might be harvested.
Re:Hahah (Score:3, Interesting)
You think its a pretty damn hot photo? Check this one out. Same site, maybe same chick. More than hot! [benetton.com]
Re:Hahah (Score:3, Informative)
Oh and here is the close up shot...
http://www.benetton.com/press/sito/photo/product_a dver/sisley/2003_wet/sisley08.html [benetton.com]
Re:Hahah (Score:3, Funny)
Re:"Inventory Control" (Score:2)
Right - or why not affix the chip to the usual cardboard tag attached by a plastic "string"? Then you could easily cut off the tag and the chip at the same time.
But that would be too easy. Obviously alterior motives at work here.
Re:so... (Score:2)
The range is very limited (Score:3, Informative)
The 1.5m range is already with big heavily optimised antennas (like the big theft detection antennas by shop entrances) which are operating at the maximum legal power output.
So in summary - you're going to have more luck taking a pair of binoculars and war-driving looking out for barcodes
Re:Not surpised (Score:2)
Et tu, Philips?
Re:Run for your lives! (Score:2)
I think this one [benetton.com] is a better example of not wanting to wear clothes, honestly.
Re:"According to this sir . . ." (Score:2)
WHAT? One and a half meters is a little less than five feet, dude. If you're of average height, that's about the distance between your outstretched arms, plus or minus a foot. It is not possible to "discretely [Did you mean 'discreetly?'] tail someone" within that distance, not even "through a crowded area."
Re:now they just need integrated GPS (Score:2)
RF triangulation.