The Wall Street Journal reports on privacy questions concerning the use of a “smart,” stored-value card in China:

Over the past 12 years, Hong Kong’s ubiquitous “Octopus card” has brought cashless payment to every facet of this city’s life, allowing people to ride subways, pay phone bills and buy groceries with the wave of a small plastic card.

Now, Octopus Holdings Ltd. is spreading its tentacles around the world and into its most promising market: mainland China, where the card’s functions are being repurposed to handle everything from all-in-one bill payments to birth registration and social security. But as the amount of data stored on the card expands, concerns about privacy are growing. Read more »

Physorg reports on a new poll that shows one in four Germans would accept being implanted with a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip if they believed the benefits outweighed concerns, including privacy questions. RFID systems transmit data wirelessly from a chip or tag to a reader.

The survey, by German IT industry lobby group BITKOM, was intended to show how the division between real life and the virtual world is increasingly coming down, one of the main themes of the CeBIT trade fair that kicks off Tuesday.

In all, 23 percent of around 1,000 respondents in the survey said they would be prepared to have a chip inserted under their skin “for certain benefits”.

Around one in six (16 percent) said they would wear an implant to allow emergency services to rescue them more quickly in the event of a fire or accident. Read more »

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that the country’s Supreme Court has “issued a status quo ante order—or one applying the existing situation before the implementation of the contested program” to stop the Land Transportation Office from implementing a system to tag cars electronically, a radio frequency identification (RFID) system. (RFID transmits data wirelessly from a chip or tag to a reader).

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stopped the Land Transportation Office (LTO) from implementing the radio frequency identification (RFID) system for motor vehicles.

In an en banc session, the Supreme Court issued a status quo ante order—or one applying the existing situation before the implementation of the contested program—on the RFID. Read more »

The  Manila Bulletin reports on controversy in the Philippines over radio frequency identification (RFID) technology (it transmits data wirelessly from a chip or tag to a reader).

Land Transportation Office (LTO) Chief Arturo Lomibao on Wednesday assured that the agency’s traffic enforcers are properly trained to enforce the electronic tagging of motor vehicles.

This was in response to the recommendation of Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Leila De Lima for the LTO to give proper training to all personnel who will handle critical roles in the implementation of the project to prevent any abuses which can result to possible human rights violations.

Lomibao has also assured the CHR that the agency’s Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) does not pose any threat to individual privacy as proper safeguards has been installed to prevent any violation of human rights and possible abuses of enforcers.

The RFID tags do not have a Global Positioning System (GPS) capability “thus the system cannot track the location and movement of motor vehicles, nor of the people riding the vehicles” according to the LTO.

The University of Arkansas engineering researchers have discovered how to digitally “fingerprint”  radio frequency identification (RFID) chips or tags. (RFID technology transmits data wirelessly from a chip or tag to a reader.)

Dale R. Thompson and Jia Di “refer to the system as a fingerprint because they discovered that individual tags are unique, not because of the data or memory they contain, but because of radio-frequency and manufacturing differences.” Thompson says that the digital fingerprints are necessary because, “it is easy to clone an RFID tag by copying the contents of its memory and applying them to a new, counterfeit tag, which can then be attached to a counterfeit product – or person, in the case of these new e-passports.” RFID fingerprints would prevent such RFID tag-counterfeiting.

There have been substantial problems with the security of RFID tag (see below). However, as security expert Bruce Schneier points out in his post on the research, it is more likely that RFID fingerprint technology would be used as a surveillance mechanism. “Even if the communications is fully encrypted, this technology could be used to uniquely identify the chip,” he says. And, depending on the data on the RFID tag, it is possible to identify the individual carrying the tag. Read more »

The Providence Journal reports that the governor of Rhode Island has vetoed bills that would have limited the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology (which transmits data wirelessly from a chip or tag to a reader). Last month, the Providence Journal reported that there were privacy questions with a new E-Z Pass system (RFID-enabled toll payment system).

Governor Carcieri has vetoed legislation that would have limited the use of electronic devices that track people as well as objects such as motor vehicles, something privacy advocates here and across the country are concerned about. [...] Read more »