Soctech seminar, Fall 2006
Fall 2006: RFID Technology: SLN 11977 CSE 590 M, Monday 12:30-1:20, CSE 303
(Law students should register for CSE 590 X - sln TBA, everything else is identical)
The past few years have seen a great deal of hype, both positive and negative, over the transformative potential of radio frequency identification technology (RFID). The goal of this seminar is to explore the broader legal and sociopolitical implications of RFID, entering into a discussion on privacy, security, and surveillance that has a solid technical and legal basis.
Seminar organization
The seminar will be discussion-driven, each period led by a small group of seminar participants and/or including invited guest experts. We are also going to produce a seminar position paper that summarizes our thoughts on RFID and on the material we've covered. Our intent is to create a coherent and tangible to leave the academic community at large. The document will be collaboratively authored and all seminar participants will be required to contribute. That said, we intend this to be relatively low-investment spread over the course of the quarter.
Basic description of RFID:
- Roy Want, The Magic of RFID.
Research:
Applications:
- Government:
- Passports (trial programs in a few countries, e.g. US)
- Commercial:
- supply-side tracking of inventory (e.g. walmart)
- gathering more detailed information about consumers (increasing information asymmetry between sellers/buyers)
- enabling buyers to gather more information about products (decreasing above information asymmetry)
Security concerns:
- hacking Dutch RFID passports
- RFID viruses (many say the claims are exaggerated)
Privacy & Surveillance concerns:
- article expressing concern about being tracked everywhere...
- Anti-RFID site
(Proposed) laws:
- Wisconsin law bans forcible implanting of RFID tag
- (old) proposed legislation in California that would attempt to protect consumer privacy
Potential speakers:
A few companies...