Walmart to add RFID tags to individual items, freak out privacy advocates
By Darren Murph 
posted July 26th 2010 1:23PM
posted July 26th 2010 1:23PM
Walmart's been pushing RFID for years now, using it to better manage the company's vast inventories and understand where products are and how fast they're approaching. Now, the mega-retailer is about to take things to another level, and it just might push competitors into getting with the program. As of now, there's limited consumer-facing benefit to tracking pallets in transit, but a Wall Street Journal report suggests that Wally World will be placing radio-frequency ID tags on individual clothes. The initiative is slated to kick off next month, and it's expected to help apparel managers know when certain sizes and colors are depleted and need to be restocked. In theory, having this ability will ensure that consumers never see their desired size or hue as sold out, and if the clothing trial is successful, the tags could be rolled out to a near-infinite amount of kit. Of course, privacy advocates are all wound up about the idea, though it seems as if most sniffing concerns could be dealt with if the tags were removed as customers departed the store. Unless you're leaving in a hurry, that is...
@detonator Oh that sounds so familiar... it's the curse of the sock.
You guys don't seem to be seeing the silver lining. Get RFID readers and install in your home. Then tape a sensor onto each pet, and not only would you be able to track where your cat was during the day, you could tell which dirty clothes were piled in the laundry room and which were put up.
I'd have way too much fun with this..
"If RFID_ID on front_porch_sensor is included in table Mister_Greens_Underwear then unlock front door."
This is a non-issue. RFID tags aren't GPS chips, they can't be tracked by satellites. you have to use RFID readers---which are short-range. It's more to identify items---it would function like UPS scanning/tracking.
So who exactly are these "privacy advocates" and how big are their tinfoil hats?
@bobley
Readers can be installed at the entrances everywhere, every rfid tag has unique number, every time you pass through the entrance with an rfid reader , your visit would be registered without your consent, and then could be linked to your name.
Thus it would be possible to compile a list of where, when, how often and with whom you go to.
@AlfaCat riiiiiight, so every time you take something you bought at walmart, in its original packaging, through an "entrance everywhere," your "visit would be registered"?
if only we could convince people to carry electronic devices around with them all the time, devices that maintain constant contact with satellites and radio towers...
no, you're right, it's much easier to install a vast system of short-range tags and readers, and hope that people pay for stuff with credit cards, and that they don't take that stuff out of the boxes....
genius.
@bobley, GPS chips (except very special, military ones) cannot be tracked by satellites either - they are a mere receivers, not any different than your car stereo. You need GSM/UMTS/some-other-RF transmitters for tracking... Actually, RFID tags are the ones that can be tracked, provided that you install a RFID reader on each 10ft, GPS receivers cannot be tracked by any means known to man.
@bobley
Before being smug revise your ignorance
This particular tag is probably 900mhz type rfid tag, it may be not that short range - about 30 feet with a regular reader, even further with a high gain antenna.
Second, the tag can be sewn inside you t-shirt you buy at walmart, effectively turning you into a walking beacon. What makes you think those tags are going to be put only into boxes with appliances? They are dirt cheap and tiny - can be integrated anywhere into anything.
If my memory serves me well, I believe Benetton (european clothing company) experimented with that years ago.
@bobley If only there were some sort of high-tech item we could convince people they couldn't live without...something expensive but subsidized by monthly service contracts...
it would keep inventory in check better. these stores are all about keeping up inventory. just a better way to manage it and also watch for shrink. heck even theft and or tracking.
I don't understand how this helps inventory anymore then current systems in place? Before you leave the store you need to pay for an item, which is identified by the barcode that gets scanned at checkout and should thus remove that item from inventory? What advantage does having the RFID tag on in addition pose? Don't get me wrong I have no problem with the tags and if they help inventory management im for it but don't see the added benefit seems like its duplicating the barcode and checkouts process.
@pointsplat, it has nothing to do with the checkout part (except the possibility to eliminate cashiers completely, or have a shopping basket/cart display you a total of what you've put into it), it has to do with inventory tracking. While in small shops it doesn't matter that much, a mammoths like Wal-Mart usually have pallets of goods that entered the shopping area but are not displayed / user-accessible, and with RFIDs personnel will know when some of the merchandise accessible to customers (say a specific t-shirt, M size) is outsold so they could drag a new contingent from the pallets and put it on display in a timely manner.
Um, unless they put signal amplifiers up all over the place, they won't be able read the tags once you get a little past their doors outside. The signal isn't all that strong.
I'm assuming they want you to take the tag with you so they can see how the goods are distributed throughout the community.
It would also allow a mischievous thief to sniff out a ps3 in ones trunk.
This would only work if the tags were removed by the cashier at checkout.
i would have killed for this system when i workeed retail ... inventory control for the win
Some libraries are already doing this, and I don't know of any group of people more conscious of privacy, than librarians.
I understand that there are neat possibilities of seeing how much product is stalked or in inventory, but what I do not get is why this is not acheivaibal through the already in place barcode system. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just get better database software to log barcode when things are taken out of inventory and stalked then again sold. I realize that UPC codes aren't unique. But just knowing the quantities of the items you initially have would allow you to see the difference every time one is sold. Just seams that it would be more cost effective than putting chips on everything.
@ch4s3r, the argument for and against RFID chipping is pretty complex. On one positive side, the company can track inventory without physically handling it which saves a massive amount of time. Scanning products which are stacked or in shipper cartons is impossible plus RFID allows serial number tracking and control down to the individual unit like never before. This can help with stock rotation, recalls and more. Both barcodes and RFID are proprietary systems which means they all cost to use but consider the additional channel costs of printing serial numbered packaging and applying it when the RFID can be fitted as part of the manufacturing process. They will save billions dollars once they get through the teething problems.
Further, with the right antennae, product velocity can be measured from individual selling positions within the store such as clip strips and end aisle displays. This is where the negative aspect comes from. Retailers will build up a massive amount of information to understand how you buy their products and what you do with them. Here's the thing, how would you feel if Wally's World learned about "you" that every time you walk through the dairy section you pick up a non-staple grocery item (such as a candy bar?) What if because enough people have the same psychological triggers or compulsions they modified it to be buy 1 and get 50% of the second and before you know it you buy two? Or worse, what if it's your wife and the shoe department?
Make no mistake, the sole purpose of business is to make profit and they will attempt to take from your wallet every cent that you can give them (affordable or not) today so that you can't spend that with their competitors tomorrow.
Anyway, end rant. My tin foil hat needs another couple of layers...I wonder if the government is already tracking tin foil purchases in order to stiffle the revolution?
@ch4s3r, imagine a big shop where you can have 1000s of customers strolling around before the checkout, and each of them grabs some popular item - if you'd rely on bar codes you'd have to wait for them to pass the checkout before knowing that there might be a shortage of that item in the display area. With RFID you can place a RFID reader on top of an isle and have a real-time update on how much of a specific product is still available to be grabbed by customers.
I think most of this paranoia is based on what people don't know and what rumors/exaggerations/opinions the tin foil hat wearing folks like to spread.
@ch4s3r
Yes this is sort of redundant to existing bar code technology, but RFID will enable you scan a whole cart full of merchandise at once. This is just the beginning. Someday you will have an RFID scanner in your refrigerator that will know when you are out of milk and put it on your grocery list that you access with your smartphone etc.
Secret meeting already taking place at Googleplex to figure out how to track and capitalize on this.
Sometime in the near future: I sit down at my PC and an internet ad pops up from the Gap; "Isn't it time you stopped wearing those tacky jeans?"
I don't have an issue with Wal Mart per se, as much as I do the precedence this sets for retailers. I'll continue my boycott of them due to their labor practices. You know what else can tell you if you are low on a certain item Wal Mart? Employees.
I'm sure they will put RFID tags in the badges of associates before long.
I wear a 42 waist and a 29 inseam. (Yes, I'm fat. I know this. Thanks for pointing it out.) I bet RFIDs will still not guarantee that pants in my size won't sell out (lots of people shopping at Walmart are my size; you can almost always find 30/30 pants, but often 40/30, 42/30, and 44/30 are sold out).
It's fitting that rfid tags raise some large consumer privacy concerns. When Leon Theremin invented the technology in the 1940's, it was used as a radio transmitter that was hidden inside the Ambassador the the Soviet Union's office seal (pretty cool stuff). As for the human tracker concerns, that's silly. The best use for this technology in a practical application is prevent shoplifting. The signals rfid give off are too approximate for accurate tracking.