http:\/\/www.spychips.com\/RFIDclothingstoredemo.html<\/a><\/p>\nAlthough the footage was created in 2002, its disclosure yesterday had
\nan immediate impact on senior management at American Eagle Outfitters.
\nMcIntyre says that within minutes of sending the video clip to an
\nexecutive at American Eagle, she received a call from Ed Nebb, senior
\ndirector of investor relations and crisis communications at Berns
\nCommunications Group. He issued the following statement:<\/p>\n
“American Eagle currently does not use any RFID systems, either in
\nsupply chain management, consumer credit card or loyalty programs, or
\nanywhere else within our operations. We highly value and respect our
\ncustomers’ privacy. The fact that a vendor may have offered a system
\ndemonstration should not be interpreted as an intention on our part to
\nadopt such a system in the future.”<\/p>\n
CompEx Inc. President Aram Kovach, who developed the video, told
\nMcIntyre that American Eagle Outfitters had requested the RFID
\ndemonstration. “They asked us to come out,” he said, explaining that the
\nexecutives later traveled to Kovach’s office in Ohio to see a working
\nprototype.<\/p>\n
The RFID tracking capability depicted in the video is feasible. “It
\nworked,” Kovach said. “All of these things can be done.” But he noted
\nthat the cost of the tags was a big barrier to adoption.<\/p>\n
McIntyre and Albrecht worry that companies deterred by cost issues may
\nbe reviving such plans now that the price of tags has dropped below the
\n$.08-cent range.<\/p>\n
They point to the RFID Apparel and Footwear Conference to be held at New
\nYork’s Fashion Institute of Technology next week as a reason for
\nconcern. The event, co-sponsored by RFID Journal and the American
\nApparel and Footwear Association, promises “to show you how RFID can
\nuniquely benefit the apparel and footwear industry.” However, unlike
\npast RFID events, where members of the press were welcomed, the
\npromotional literature for the conference states:<\/p>\n
“The entire conference is off limits to the press, so you can be sure
\nyou’ll get candid insider insight that you can’t hear anywhere else.”<\/p>\n
“It’s clear that implementing RFID in apparel and footwear is being
\ndiscussed behind closed doors,” said Albrecht. “Our concern is that the
\ncompanies working to integrate RFID into clothing operations are keeping
\ntheir plans from the public. A case in point is Levi Strauss, which is
\nselling clothes with RFID hang tags attached, but refusing to disclose
\nthe test location.”<\/p>\n
The pair is asking the conference sponsors to explain the need for
\nsecrecy at their event. “What is it they’re discussing that they don’t
\nwant the press to know?” Albrecht asks. “The press restriction is
\nobviously not designed to keep proprietary information from industry
\ncompetitors, since any apparel or footwear company can attend the event
\nat a discounted rate. Clearly, excluding the press is an attempt to
\nprevent the public from learning about the industry’s plans to use RFID
\ntracking devices in clothing.”<\/p>\n
Albrecht and McIntyre have posted a promotional email for the conference
\nthat specifies the press restriction at:
\nhttp:\/\/www.spychips.com\/RFIDApparelandFootwearConference.html<\/p>\n
=====================================================================
\nABOUT “SPYCHIPS”<\/strong><\/p>\nLiz McIntyre and Katherine Albrecht are the authors of “Spychips: How
\nMajor Corporations Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID.” The book
\ndraws on patent documents, corporate source materials, conference
\nproceedings, and firsthand interviews to paint a convincing — and
\nfrightening — picture of the consumer privacy threat posed by RFID.<\/p>\n
Despite its hundreds of footnotes and academic-level accuracy, the book
\nremains lively and readable according to critics, who have called it a
\n“techno-thriller” and “a masterpiece of technocriticism.”<\/p>\n
Two days prior to its release in 2005, “Spychips” flew the top of the
\nAmazon bestseller charts, hitting number one as a “Mover & Shaker,”
\nmaking its way to the top-ten Nonfiction bestseller list, and spending
\nweeks as a Current Events bestseller. In a nod to the book’s focus on
\nfreedom, Spychips was awarded the prestigious Lysander Spooner Award for
\nAdvancing the Literature of Liberty and named “the year’s best book on
\nliberty.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 9, 2006 Crisis PR Firm Disavows Incriminating Video on Eve of Major Conference On the eve of a major RFID apparel and footwear conference, privacy activists are asking questions about an Orwellian industry video presentation depicting the use of Radio Frequency Identification at an American Eagle Outfitters store. The animated video, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,27,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer","category-government","category-rfid","category-watching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}