Tracking technology controversy in Berkeley
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology was invented about 60 years ago. Only recently has it begun to grow in popularity. Next year three times the number of tags will be sold over the previous 60 years. The value of the market is expected to increase to $24.5 billion in ten years. It is mainly used for supply chain control. At present it's used on pallets and cases, but as prices for the tags drop, it will be used even more on individual items. The mainstream press generally carries stories about its use in other areas: people, clothing, animals, and library materials. A few discuss technical and health issues related to the use of wireless frequencies for the transmission of data. As awareness grows with the general public, many worry about privacy and surveillance. Industry promoters believe that education will reduce this resistance. Many non-profit and activist groups have tried to address some of these problems, usually contradicting the claims of the industry.
In 2003 the Berkeley, California Board of Library Trustees BOLT held meetings that were open to the public that discussed RFID technology which was touted as an improvement over bar codes and a partial solution to the problem of repetitive stress and the added costs for disability settlements as well as staffing shortages at the expanded central library. The argument was similar the one many automation proponents make: it will free an employee from tedious labor to do something more useful/challenging. In addition it seemed to be a better way of checking in and checking out books. The ability to read RFID tags from a short distance away, about 18 inches, even allows one library, Santa Clara City, to retrieve DVDs that library users squirrel away in distant areas of the library for later consumption.
By the time the library approved Checkpoint Systems Inc. in New Jersey as the vendor in April 2004 and a loan from the city in June 2004, a sizable group of community activists formed SuperBOLT to oppose this decision. The library published a number of information briefs, and anyone interested could read dozens of papers, web logs, and news articles on the technology in libraries as well as thousands of web sites from industry, consultants, privacy advocates, and individual activists about broader use of RFIDs.
Earlier this summer the trustees announced a community informational forum on RFID. It was held in a city senior center on August 1, from 630 to 9 p.m. At the opening there were about 70 people and this seemed to double as the night wore on. Few people left before the end. It was moderated by a local tv personality who did a good job is keeping his cool and timing all but one of the speakers as well as the long line of public commenters.
A local citizen videotaped the whole event. L A Wood has been taping city events including concerts, festivals, hearings, council meetings since 1992. berkeleycitizen.org includes many of his writings and lists of his programs which make up his 1300 two hour tape archive. I talked with him about archive.org and ourmedia.org as well as the push for citizen journalism which has had a lot of success in Korea and is being promoted by Dan Gillmor, formerly of the San Jose Mercury News (www.bayosphere.com).
As the audience filed in a few carried small placards reading "Books Yes, Spy Chips No." There were a few young people, but most were older white women. Those who wished to speak filled out a slip of paper, and a library staffer selected ten names from a box, and each had two minutes to speak. Some yielded their time to colleagues who had prepared statements. Almost all of the speakers were alarmed about the technology and angry at the library decision. The main comments focused on the perceived lack of transparency in the decision process, health issues associated with RF, the system being used for surveillance by the government, the costs and poor return on investment. Most of these issues were discussed in the ensuing panels, and more questions followed each panel.
The first panel included Paul Simon from Checkpoint. He used Powerpoint to give a basic lecture on the technology, and though he took more time than the others, it was a good basis for those who knew little about the technology. However, the audience distrusted the company rep and one thought Checkpoint was going to kill mom-and-pop firms, and there was a suggestion that the university develop an open system in case this firm went out of business. I thought about the engineer at UCLA who is developing an RFID tag for DVD players to enhanced Digital Rights Management!
UC Berkeley grad student David Molnar talked about some of the weaknesses in the RFID system, especially one installed in Oakland library where the tags could be overwritten with another identifier. He talked about the modest cost of readers ($250) which leads one to believe that security will be an important part of any library system. He was worried more about the ubiquity of the tags and readers, not about the range which was claimed to be 18 inches.
However, at a recent Defcon conference in Las Vegas, hacker and security experts from U.S. three letter agencies attended a demo where Fexilis, a security company, showed that some RFIDs could be read from a distance of 69 feet. (Information Week, August 1, 2005)
Gordon Wozniak, a Berkeley City Council member and nuclear chemist, explained the energy levels of different radio waves and that the frequencies used in library RFIDs would not be dangerous. He noted that the animal control shelter had implanted chips in thousands of dogs and cats and showed a picture of a 'cat scan' where the reader was getting owner information from the back of a small cat. He noted that 20 million dogs and cats have been tagged in the UK.
When the Q&A started there were 19 people lined up behind the mike. People were worried about the cost going up. One asked if there was excess data space in the library chips. No, but other systems to allow for more storage. One library staff member complained that the RFID reader had been down for six weeks, and Simon replied that service reps had visited four times. It came out that the city of Berkeley endorses the "precautionary principle" in adopting new technology. One person thought Wozniak was "in bed with Homeland Security" and that the feds were targeting the city. Another claimed that the city had received a Homeland Security server that would route all traffic from the city and presumably capture sensitive information. This was denied.
A union member (SIEU) asked about reduction of repetitive stress and better ergonomics. Another said the whole system was fascist, and there was a general worry about increasing police state powers, with the Patriot Act as evidence. A San Francisco resident who advocated antenna-free areas spoke against the technology. One fellow thought there needed to be another meeting with a more balanced panel.
However, the second panel included Lee Tien from the Electronic Frontier Foundation which opposed the adoption of a similar system by San Francisco Public Library, and the board of supervisors voted not to fund it. Tien has been a vocal opponent of RFID and also helped thwart the adoption of RFID badges by a school near Sacramento. He noted that there is a strong momentum behind the technology, due to the support by government and the corporations. "It is poor civic hygiene to install a technology that might facilitate a police state. The library is creating an infrastructure that will add to this."
Mary Minow, attorney and expert on library law, gave a history of the FBI library awareness program that ran for about 20 years. She talked about the records laws in different states. California is stronger that some states and weaker than others.
Karen Coyle is a library automation expert who worked with U.C. system for many years. She has a strong interest in RFID and said it must be considered as part of the whole system. She advocates that libraries undertake privacy audits and ferret out all the kinds of data that is stored in different sorts of files, not just a single library automation system. She spoke about the need to use encryption, and as other noted, you need to protect the database itself, especially if the access points are vulnerable.
Another Q&A session followed with more rants and some personal attacks on Jackie Griffin, BPL Director. The health concerns dominated the comments, and some people cited various authors and studies. Wozniak replied that other scientists had found it impossible to replicate the negative studies mentioned by some opponents.
While the comments and questions were heated, it seems important to note that the opponents were fairly well organized and given the sea of conflicting information and opinions on the Internet, they were able to find many items that buttressed their views. On the other hand the industry PR pieces and press releases paint a very rosy picture of the technology. I had the feeling that the audience did not change its mind, and while the library board and library director did listen, they were not going to reverse their decision.
It is noteworthy that nobody spoke in favor of the technology, and while the majority of the library users may benefit from the technology, few cared enough to attend and voice support for the decision. So it's more of a political issue rather than a technical or financial one. Will the continued opposition by SuperBOLT influence support for the library by the less interested general public? The other problem I see is that the RFID field is changing rapidly (more agencies implementing the technology and the development of chipless and printed RFID tags). With ongoing security pressures from the federal government, local/municipal entities may have to comply with directives that conflict with the mission of the local organization. The linking of Internet filtering with e-rate funds is one such example. Phone companies have had to change their technology to allow the feds ability to wiretap, and libraries may be pressured to allow their records to be used in ways that violate the confidentiality many librarians hold so dear. Even if a library is only linking an item code number with the code of the borrower, that small piece of information may form part of a data mosaic. compiled from a number of other RFID data banks, that could build a profile of a user or users.
Links:
Q&A on Berkeley's program
San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union
Checkpoint Systems Inc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
SuperBOLT
Steve Cisler
http://place.typepad.com/digitalcommons
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