ID CHIPS TO
UPGRADE CRATE-TRACKING CAPABILITIES
CRITICS SAY TECHNOLOGY THREATENS PRIVACY
Author: Justin Pope
Associated Press
Edition: Final
Section: BUSINESS
Page: C2
Estimated printed pages: 3
Article Text:
Backers of new radio-tagged
product codes, a kind of souped-up wireless bar code, are heralding this as the
week the technology finally moves off the drawing board and into the physical
world.
Unlike traditional bar codes,
"Radio Frequency Identification" tags don't need to pass under a
laser reader. They're already commonly used by drivers with "speed
passes" at toll booths,
But the MIT lab developing the
technology and sponsors including Wal-Mart, Gillette and Procter & Gamble
are calling a symposium this week in
For now, the focus is on
logistics: making sure there's enough product to fill
the shelves but not so much as to clog up supply lines or waste away in
warehouses. Using RFID to track individual products all the way to the checkout
line is considered farther down the road, until costs come down.
"The symposium is intended
to be a bit like a starting pistol for this new technology," said Kevin
Ashton, executive director of MIT's
For some, however, RFID is
moving a little too quickly.
The technology got a push --
some say a kick in the rear -- this summer when Wal-Mart Stores told its top
100 suppliers to deliver RFID-tagged products by
Some, like Procter & Gamble,
were already enthusiastically pursuing RFID on their own. But a new research report
suggests others are feeling rushed to implement it.
They're also worried that if a
common set of RFID standards fails to emerge they'll have to build a new system
for every customer. And if standards do emerge, they worry they'll be forced to
share information with competitors just to plug into the systems of customers
they share.
"With every supplier, there
are two camps," said Kara Romanow, an analyst with AMR Research, whose
report estimated companies would spend $2 billion trying to meet the Wal-Mart
deadline. "There's the camp that believes the end vision and has really
bought into the hype. Then there are the people that are charged with
implementing it that are scared."
Some privacy advocates, who
contend the technology will soon be used to track people and their personal
information, are also worried that RFID is moving too fast. Katherine Albrecht,
of the privacy group Caspian, said citizen and consumer advocates should have
been invited to the
"It's such a one-sided
conversation about the needs of businesses, with so little input from the
citizens and consumers who are the major stakeholders in society," she
said.
Ashton, of the AutoID center,
said privacy advocates should be part of the debate but said, as the technology
develops, rules will apply: Any customers who end up with RFID technology in
their hands will be notified, given the option of turning it off, and given
control over how any information is used.
The 1,000 attendees at the
Electronic Product Code symposium will likely have questions about privacy, as
well as standards and the rush by the "Wal-Mart 100" to comply with
the company's mandate.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart
has a long tradition of setting tough rules for its suppliers, but experts say
this is the toughest directive yet, given the tight deadline and the novelty of
the technology.
The order, and the presumption
that other big retailers will follow suit, has sparked a new industry of RFID
consulting; IBM, for instance, planned to formally announce a comprehensive
RFID service for clients in
Experts say some companies are
doing the minimum to comply, but others are investing heavily, figuring the technology
will eventually cut their costs too. When Wal-Mart adopted bar codes in the
1980s and helped make the technology an everyday product, suppliers also
eventually made good use of it.
"Although Wal-Mart makes
self-serving recommendations and mandates, ultimately if you look at the track
record starting with the bar code and them really pushing it, you find these
have really taken costs out of the supply chain," said Tom Roberts, a vice
president at WebMethods, a
Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams
said suppliers want to know what will be asked of them, but aren't complaining.
The company will bring suppliers together this fall to discuss the mandate.
Some estimates put logistical
costs at 5 cents on every dollar of goods sold, and analysts have predicted the
technology could save Wal-Mart more than $1 billion per year. For a company
that depends on selling at discount prices, and which moves 5 billion boxes
annually through its distribution centers, the technology is impossible to
ignore.
"We do track inventory, and
we do track it fairly well. But here with RFID, it'd be almost like moving from
the telegraph age to the age of the Internet," Williams said.
Copyright (c) 2003 Lexington
Herald-Leader
Record Number: 0309160589