Tag Archives: RFID

Real time tracking more enabled by new industry standard

Posted on December 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

The recently approved standard in February 2012 from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) IEEE 802.15.4f enabled Zebra Technologies to develop RFID tags, sold to West Cheshire College for tracking its students.

As reported in the RFID Journal, [NB. This RFID Journal article was withdrawn from the RFID Journal’s website w/c 7 Jan 2013. A Copy of the article (pdf) is here and here is the original article on the Internet Archieve Wayback Machine] Zebra “In anticipation of that development [IEEE 802.15f], Zebra Technologies has announced a new version of its Dart ultra-wideband (UWB) real-time location system (RTLS) sensor that will be compatible with that standard”

With no regulations of the tracking of humans – students in this case – by RFID in the UK it seems that students at least, as education becomes more corporate and finance driven, have this real time location system tracking to look forward to.

Much like how biometrics were trialed and introduced in schools in the UK from 2001-2012, completely unregulated, not informing parents, government having no knowledge of what the biometric industry was up to in its schools, it appears that RTLS RFID now is being afforded the same luxury.

According to the RFID Journal [NB. This RFID Journal article was withdrawn from the RFID Journal’s website w/c 7 Jan 2013. A Copy of the article (pdf) is here and here is the original article on the Internet Archieve Wayback Machine] these are the characteristics of RFID tags the students wear:

UWB tags emit brief RF signals across the entire 6.35 to 6.75 GHz frequency band.
Average battery lifespan of a tag is seven years.
Receivers, which can receive tag signals from up to 328 feet away, located throughout the campus buildings, in order to ensure that the tags can be pinpointed no matter where within the school a student might be located. (Toilet? Showers?)
Designed to provide accuracy greater than 1 meter (3.3 feet).
Transmission rate of once per second.
Enables observation of student and staff in peer groups.

The standard IEEE 802.15f was approved February 2012. RFID Journal article of 30 April 2012 states that “The school deployed the technology in two phases—first at its Chester Campus, in 2010, and then at its newly built Ellesmere Port Campus, last year [2011]”

…mmm has the college been trialing RTLS before the standard was set?

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Posted in Industry Standard, RFID College, RFID Tags, RFID tracking, Tracking children, UK, West Cheshire College

Tagged college, industry standard, RFID, RFID tags, RFID tracking, surveillance, Tracking children, West Cheshire College

Student suspended for not wearing RFID

Posted on November 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

Well it has happened – pure discrimination against a human not choosing not to be tagged with RFID, in this – possibly first case of RFID discrimination – a child. USA you should be proud to have reached the heady heights of the big brother state that your rivals China, North Korea, Russia have not even achieved.

School student Andrea Hernandez, 16 years old, is suspended for refusing to wear an RFID lanyard. The Northside School District has not wavered at all in this and now Andrea is taking legal action against the school.

Is this what children can look forward to in a “democracy”? No religious right of expression if it doesn’t suit the establishment? Even on privacy grounds, or for any reason, children and parents should be able to refuse carrying RFID. It is a gross invasion of privacy and apart from that invasion the technology has not yet proved it is safe for health reasons.

“Hernandez was told she would be expelled and transferred to another high school in the district that had not yet adopted the tags, if she refused to comply.

The teen is now taking the school to court in a bid to overturn the decision.

Hernandez is backed by civil liberties organisation The Rutherford Institute, which has accused district authorities of implementing the program purely as a money-making scheme.

“There is something fundamentally disturbing about this school district’s insistence on steamrolling students into complying with programs that have nothing whatsoever to do with academic priorities and everything to do with fattening school coffers,” Institute president John Whitehead said.”

Rutherford Institute – https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/on_the_front_lines/texas_school_kicks_student_out_of_magnet_program_for_refusing_to_wear_smart

Infowars – http://www.infowars.com/preliminary-injunction-sought-in-school-rfid-tracking-badge-case/

ZDNet – http://www.zdnet.com/student-expelled-for-refusing-to-wear-rfid-tracking-chip-badge-7000007723/

Russia Today – http://rt.com/usa/news/rfid-badge-texas-hernandez-269/

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Posted in Discrimination, Protest, RFID school, RFID tracking, Tracking children, USA

Tagged discrimination, education?, prejudice, refusal, RFID, RFID children, RFID school, Tracking children

Refusal to wear RFID tag at school

Posted on September 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

From Wired.com – “Just as the U.S. Department of Agriculture mandates Radio Frequency Identification Device chips to monitor livestock, a Texas school district just begun implanting the devices on student identification cards to monitor pupils’ movements on campus, and to track them as they come and go from school.

Tagging school children with RFID chips is uncommon, but not new. A federally funded preschool in Richmond, California, began embedding RFID chips in students’ clothing in 2010. And an elementary school outside of Sacramento, California, scrubbed a plan in 2005 amid a parental uproar. And a Houston, Texas, school district began using the chips to monitor students on 13 campuses in 2004.”

This RFID tagging of humans is not resting well with some families. Here on The Alex Jones Channel – “Steve and Andrea Hernandez of Spychips.com who talk with Alex in-studio about San Antonio area High School honor student who has refused to wear a school mandated RFID tracking beacon around her neck because doing so conflicts with her religious beliefs.”

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Posted in RFID school, RFID tracking, Tracking children, USA

Tagged education?, prejudice, refusal, RFID, RFID children, Tracking children

RFID in schools – School District spokesman Pascual Gonzalez “This is not surveillance.”

Posted on September 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

You’re kidding me right?

According to Fox News, Northside Independent School District spokesman Pascual Gonzales is of the opinion that using RFID with children in schools, tracking their every movement throughout the day…

“[RFID]…is not surveillance.”

Quite astonishing! What quite is RFID used for then?

We would suggest that Pascual return to school as a student, rather than a spokesperson, not only to complete his education (which obviously has some glaring gaps in the subject of technology) but so he too can experience what it is to be tracked going to the toilet, being observed who he is associating with and how his time keeping bears up.

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Posted in RFID children, RFID school, RFID tracking, USA

Tagged education?, RFID, RFID school, surveillance

“We don’t think kids in schools should be treated like cattle”

Posted on September 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

From fellow blogger Lucas 2012 Info – “We don’t think kids in schools should be treated like cattle,” Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in a telephone interview. “We generally don’t like it. My take on RFID is it’s fine for products, but not so much for people. That’s one of the places where the lines need to be drawn. ”

The introduction of RFID chips in some Texas high schools has caused controvisy and debate. The students are against it and are opposing the intrusive nature of this technology.

Uploaded by WearechangeTHC (Texas Hill County)