German RFID Scandal: Hidden devices, unkillable tags found in Metro Future Store

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 5, 2004

German RFID Scandal: Hidden devices, unkillable tags found in Metro Future Store Germans say, "Nein! We wont be your versuchskaninchen"

"We won't be your versuchskaninchen." That's the message German privacy advocates are sending to executives at the Metro Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany after discovering RFID devices hidden in the store's loyalty cards. They also found that RFID tags on products sold at the store cannot be completely deactivated after purchase, despite Metro's claims.

"Versuchskaninchen" is the German word for guinea pig, which is how German consumers feel Metro and its partners have treated them since opening the Future Store last year to test experimental RFID applications on live shoppers.

The revelations came just one day after Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) toured the Future Store with a delegation of privacy experts from German advocacy group FoeBud, who sponsored her visit.

"We were shocked to find RFID tags in Metro's 'Payback' loyalty card," said Albrecht, after FoeBuD tested the cards with an RFID reader and discovered the tag. "The card application form, brochures, and signage at the store made no mention of the embedded technology and Metro executives spent several hours showing us the store without telling us about it."

"In retrospect, it's no wonder store employees appeared nervous when we asked to take a few of the cards with us," she added.

Vendors of RFID-enabled loyalty cards promote them as a way for supermarkets to identify shoppers remotely as they enter the store, using details of their identity and purchase history to pitch products to them and to track their movements and activities within the store. Prior to the Metro discovery, no major retailer had publicly admitted to using such cards.

In addition to the cards, Albrecht discovered that Metro cannot deactivate the unique identification number contained in RFID tags in products it sells. The use of unique, item-level ID numbers is one of the key privacy concerns surrounding the use of RFID tags on consumer goods.

"Customers are misled into believing that the tags can be killed at a special deactivation kiosk, but the kiosk only rewrites a portion of the tag, while leaving the unique ID number intact," she said.

Outraged German citizens are calling on Metro to put an immediate end to the trials.

"We are deeply disappointed at the Metro executives. They talked of an open dialog while hiding important facts from us," said Rena Tangens of FoeBuD. "We are calling for an immediate moratorium on further RFID testing as it is clear that Metro is not handling the technology responsibly."

Evidence of the RFID tag in Metro's "Payback" loyalty card, along with evidence of the incomplete deactivation of product tags, can be found on FoeBuD's website at http://www.foebud.org/rfid/.

For more information, see http://www.spychips.com and http://www.nocards.org. Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN Founder and Director: (877) 287-5854 Liz McIntyre, CASPIAN Communications: (877) 287-5854 or liz@nocards.org