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Beginning August 1, men’s blue jeans and underwear sold at Walmart will carry electronic radio identification tags. The company, the world’s largest retailer, insists the devices are crucial to improving the logistics of inventory management, while critics point to the privacy concerns associated with the tags.

The markers in question, called radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, are implanted in the garments and can be read by hand-held scanners. Wal-Mart officials praise the portability of the tags and the boost in speed and accuracy they bring to inventory control. “This ability to wave the wand and have a sense of all the products that are on the floor or in the back room in seconds is something that we feel can really transform our business,” crows Raul Vasquez, Wal-Mart’s representative for its stores in the western states.

RFID tags are nothing new at Walmart (or many other retailers). Until now, however, the tags were chiefly used to track pallets of goods from factory to warehouse to the local outlet. After August 1, though, for the first time Walmart will bring the technology out of the storeroom and into the consumer’s pants — literally.

In order to understand why Walmart’s selling of clothes loaded with RFID tags is worrisome, one needs to know a bit about how the devices work.

Radio-frequency identification tags are made of two principal components: an integrated circuit for storing and processing data and modulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal; and an antenna for receiving and transmitting the radio signal.

There are three types of RFID tags in common use: active RFID tags, which contain a battery and transmits signals autonomously; passive RFID tags, which have no battery and require an external source to stimulate signal transmission; and battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID tags, which operate only when “turned on” by an outside source, but have significant higher forward link capability providing greater range. The tags being used by Walmart are reportedly the passive version.

The workings of the technology reveals the privacy privations feared by critics. These tags can be scanned not just by Walmart employees, but by anyone with a scanner tuned to the signal. And, the signal given off by these “inventory control devices” cannot be turned off. Even if removed by consumers, as Walmart anticipates, the tags remain active and, whether sitting in the garbage or in the closet, they are emitting a signal.

That perpetually “on” aspect of the RFID tags is what sends chills down the spine of privacy advocates like Katherine Albrecht. Albrecht is the founder of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, an organization dedicated to tracking the tracking.

Albrecht told reporters that, “This is the first piece of a very large and very frightening tracking system.”

Large and frightening are apt descriptions of a plan being implemented by a company with the global footprint of Walmart. The plain economic fact is that Walmart sets the standard for many other retailers by exerting control over suppliers and compelling them to alter their methods according to the wishes of the Behemoth of Bentonville.

This influence is felt by stores of all sorts that draw inventory from the same supply stream. Thus, as goes Walmart, so goes retail. This domino effect works to expand the scope of the RFID tracking issue to cover most of the population.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “several other U.S. retailers, including J.C. Penney and Bloomingdale’s, have begun experimenting with smart tags on clothing to better ensure shelves remain stocked with sizes and colors that customers want.”

International industry journals report that Indian suppliers to other retail heavy hitters such as Metro, Target and U.K.-based Tesco have already been issued directives to replace bar codes with RFID tags. While this may lower margins of these suppliers, it is also expected to create a demand for RFID tags in India. The value of the entire RFID market — tags, readers, software/services and labels — is expected to touch $5.63 billion in 2010, according to a recent survey conducted by IDTechEx.

Is there any doubt that supply will meet the challenges of demand? Especially when the demand is made by those earning their livelihood by catering to the wishes of Walmart.

Industry insiders, while trying to downplay the “Big Brother” aspect of the technology and promote the logistics applications, illuminate red warning lights in their praise of RFID. Robert Carpenter, chief executive of a group that helped universal product codes (UPC) reach ubiquity, now predicts the same saturation of retail by RFID codes.

There is, of course, a stark distinction between UPC and RFID. As stated above, RFID is always “live” and continuously transmits a signal despite the consumer’s efforts to remove them. UPC, on the other hand, can be removed and is a static, or dead, device and can be defaced or erased, thus terminating its tracking capabilities.

Another concern to Albrecht and others protective of the privacy of citizens is the potential for coordination with other objects embedded with the chips and carried by people who shop at Walmart.

According to Albrecht and other privacy sentinels, drivers in states along the Canadian border (Michigan and Washington) are now issued licenses containing RFID tags that enable them to cross back and forth across the border with ease. Albrecht explained her fear to USA Today that “retailers could scan data from such licenses and their purchases and combine that data with other personal information.”

Theoretically, stores could scan these licenses without foreknowledge of the consumer, then amalgamate all the data broadcast by the RFID tags to form a composite image of the activity, movements, and buying behavior of those carrying such licenses. Then the next time the consumer comes in the store, employees could instantly indentify the person and know how to tailor the consumer’s shopping experience, including the ads that run on the TVs placed throughout Walmart.

While such corporate surveillance may sound far-fetched, Albrecht argues that “there are a lot of corporate marketers who are interested in tracking people as they walk sales floors.” It isn’t just inventory that could be controlled, but access and advertising, as well.

Despite assurances from Walmart executives that the RFID technology will only be used to better manage inventory in order to cut costs and pass along those savings to consumers, those familiar with the immense potential for RFID scanning admit that “they’ll cut down on employee theft because it will be easier to see if something’s gone missing from the back room.”

So, the party line has gone from supply chain management, to cost-cutting for the consumer, to monitoring of employees. Still, advocates contend that there is nothing to worry about — unless you’re a supplier, a consumer, a driver, or an employee of Walmart.

Source: The New American

South Korea has deployed sentry robots capable of detecting and killing intruders along the heavily-fortified border with North Korea, officials said on Tuesday.

Boeing has unveiled its unmanned hydrogen-powered spy plane which can fly non-stop for up to four days.

The high-altitude plane, called Phantom Eye, will remain aloft at 20,000m (65,000ft), according to the company.

The demonstrator will be shipped to Nasa’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California later this summer to prepare for its first flight in early 2011.

Boeing says the aircraft could eventually carry out “persistent intelligence and surveillance”.

It is a product of the company’s secretive Phantom Works research and development arm.

Boeing says the aircraft is capable of long endurance flights because of its “lighter” and “more powerful” hydrogen fuel system.

“We flew Condor [the company's previous reconnaissance drone] for 60 hours in 1989 on regular jet fuel, and that was the maximum,” said Chris Haddox from Boeing Phantom Works. “Now we’re talking 96 hours.”

The company explained in a statement that Phantom Eye was “powered by two 2.3 litre, four-cylinder engines that provide 150 horsepower each”.

It is also very large, with a 46m (150ft) wingspan.

“It isn’t built for stealth – it’s built for endurance,” Mr Haddox told BBC News.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has an ongoing interest in long-endurance high-altitude planes for surveillance and is considering a several different technologies, including solar power, to meet the requirements of what it refers to as its “Scavenger project”.

The aerospace and defence company Qinetiq are carrying out trials in conjunction with the MoD to develop a solar powered plane called Zephyr.

A spokesperson for the MoD said: “Four days is very good but we are considering a range of options for our deep and persistent reconnaissance requirements.

“Some of these options could be airborne for over a week.”

Source: BBC

German officials have launched legal proceedings against Facebook for accessing and saving the personal data of people who do not use the site.

Facebook could face fines of tens of thousands of euros under privacy laws.

The social networking firm confirmed it had received a letter about the action.

“We consider the saving of data from third parties, in this context, to be against data privacy laws,” said Johannes Caspar, head of Hamburg’s Data Protection Authority.

Mr Caspar said he had received a number of complaints from people who had not signed up to Facebook, but whose details had been added to the site by friends. He accused Facebook of saving private data of non-members without their permission, to be used for marketing purposes.

Switzerland is also reported to be concerned about the use of third-party data.

Facebook has until 11 August to formally reply to the legal complaint against it.

The California-based company told the BBC in an email that it was “currently reviewing (the complaint) and will readily respond to it within the given time frame”.

“Millions of Germans come to Facebook each day to find their friends, share information with them and connect to the world around them,” wrote spokesman Stefano Hessel.

Facebook has nearly 500 million users worldwide but according to figures by ComScore is only the fourth biggest social network in Germany.

‘Human right’

This is not the first time the social networking site has landed in hot water with data protection officials.

At the beginning of the year, Canada’s privacy commissioner launched an investigation into the site following complaints about privacy policies.

And back in May, Facebook faced a storm of criticism for the way it handled members’ data after unveiling new privacy settings.

A number of US senators made public calls at the time for the company to rethink its privacy safeguards.

Consumer Watchdog said it was not surprised that Europe was driving this latest legal action against Facebook.

“There are much stronger privacy laws in Europe than here, where privacy is viewed as a consumer protection issue as opposed to a fundamental human right,” the group’s John Simpson told BBC News.

“We see that a number of Silicon Valley companies don’t really understand how seriously privacy issues are taken in Europe and they will continue to run afoul of data protection laws there. I also think there is a growing reaction in the US that we should beef up our privacy laws along the lines of those in Europe.”

Source: BBC

The Pentagon’s spy unit has quietly begun to rebuild a database for tracking potential terrorist threats that was shut down after it emerged that it had been collecting information on American anti-war activists.

The Defense Intelligence Agency filed notice this week that it plans to create a new section called Foreign Intelligence and Counterintelligence Operation Records, whose purpose will be to “document intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and counternarcotic operations relating to the protection of national security.”

But while the unit’s name refers to “foreign intelligence,” civil liberties advocates and the Pentagon’s own description of the program suggest that Americans will likely be included in the new database.

FICOR replaces a program called Talon, which the DIA created in 2002 under then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as part of the counterterrorism efforts following the 9/11 attacks. It was disbanded in 2007 after it emerged that Talon had retained information on anti-war protesters, including Quakers, even after it was determined they posed no threat to national security.

DIA spokesman Donald Black told Newsweek that the new database would not include the more controversial elements of the old Talon program. But Jeff Stein at the Washington Post reports that the new program will evidently inherit the old Talon database.

“Why the new depository would want such records while its parent agency no longer has a law enforcement function could not be learned,” Stein reports. “Nor could it be learned whether the repository will include intelligence reports on protest groups gathered by its predecessor.”

The Pentagon’s notice states that the database will collect “identifying information such as name, Social Security Number (SSN), address, citizenship documentation, biometric data, passport number, vehicle identification number and vehicle/vessel license data.” As only US residents have Social Security Numbers, it appears the program is being designed at least partly to contain domestic information.

Newsweek cites two unnamed US officials as suggesting that the new program essentially echoes the old one. When CIFA, the DIA division running Talon, was disbanded in 2008, “many of its personnel and some of its functions were transferred” to the new DIA unit running the new database program. The new program will be housed “in the same office space that CIFA once occupied, in a complex near suburban Washington’s Reagan National Airport.”

Mike German, a former FBI agent now working with the ACLU, says “Americans should be just as concerned” about the new database as the previous one under the Bush administration.

“It’s a little hard to tell what this is exactly, but we do know that DIA took over ‘offensive counterintelligence’ for the DoD once CIFA was abandoned,” he told the Post‘s Stein. “It therefore makes sense that this new DIA database would be collecting the same types of information that CIFA collected improperly.”

Source: Raw Story

Nano Aerial Vehicle will help soldiers fighting in crowded urban areas

Soldiers fighting future battles in crowded urban areas will be able to launch hummingbird-sized unmanned nano aerial vehicles — or NAVs — capable of carrying sophisticated sensors and flying through open windows in buildings to report back on enemy positions.

A new project partly funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA) called the Nano Aerial Vehicle (NAV) program aims to develop an extremely small, ultra-lightweight aerial vehicle for urban military missions that can fly both indoors and outdoors and that is capable of climbing and descending vertically as well as flying sideways left and right.

DARPA says the NAV program pushes the limits of aerodynamic and power conversion efficiency, endurance and maneuverability for very small air vehicle systems.

The design the agency green lighted for further development actually will look and fly much like a hummingbird. The winning concept, developed by AeroVironment, is called Nano Scout (Nano Sensor Covert Observer in Urban Terrain). It is a remote-controlled, battery powered NAV with two flapping wings that weighs about two grams (about as heavy as two nickels) and is just slightly longer than three inches.

Lots of competition
The Scout is designed to fly forward at speeds of up to 20 mph, slow down to one mph for precision navigation inside buildings, withstand five mph wind gusts, operate inside buildings and have a range of over one-half mile.

The Nano Scout was selected over competing concepts submitted by Lockheed Martin, MicroPropulsion Inc., and Draper Laboratory at the end of the program’s first phase last year.

An early prototype tested by the company has already reached a technical milestone by achieving a hovering flight equal to that of a two-wing flapping wing aircraft while carrying its own energy source and using only the flapping wings for propulsion. A working prototype, scheduled for demonstration to DARPA when the second phase of the NAV program ends this summer, will have a flight endurance of 11 to 20 minutes.

But DARPA and AeroVironment aren’t the only players with a wing in the NAV game. Though its monocoptor design that is shaped like a maple leaf was passed over for the second phase of the DARPA program, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ Advanced Development Programs is continuing its exploration of NAVs on its own dime with the Samurai program.

The company has built two larger mono-wing vehicles as part of the program, a 30-inch flyer and a 12-inch version that is small enough to fit into a backpack and fly through an open window to enter a building. The Samurai design, says Kingsley Fregene, principal investigator for the program, is inherently stable and has few moving parts, which makes it a robust, aerodynamically clean airframe. Unlike more conventional designs, the entire aircraft rotates.

Nano-sized pack mules
Most of the excitement has been about the platform and getting devices in the air and keeping them there. But the payoff for NAVs is in the payload. “A lot of people can build aircraft that fly,” Neil Adams told TechNewsDaily. “Making them work is the

critical element.”