A German supermarket group has been quietly trialling radio frequency identification (RFID) chips on loyalty cards: the German FoeBuD group has found them on cards issued by Metro's Future Store in Rheinburg. Each RFID chip holds a unique number that can be retrieved by scanners a few feet away. The store does tell shoppers that it uses RFID chips on individual items, and says they are deactivated at the checkout, though they continue to work partially afterwards. Metro tells us that the RFIDs are used on loyalty cards to verify customer age and to store loyalty card numbers, and that an upgraded deactivation system should blank all details from item RFIDs later this year.
www.foebud.org/rfid/index-gb.html
Eric Doyle and SA Mathieson
The Guardian, GB
, 19. Februar 2004
Original: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/insideit/story/0,13270,1150721,00.html