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Tesco Boy Cott

James Mata | 27.01.2005 17:51 | Globalisation | Indymedia | World

Dear ZombieWire RFID News Readers

We are launching a boycott campaign against Tesco, the world's
third-largest retailer, for its involvement in item-level RFID tagging
trials. These trials, involving tens of thousands of British shoppers,
set an unacceptable example for the retail industry.

RFID News The ZombieWire
RFID News The ZombieWire


We are launching a boycott campaign against Tesco, the world's
third-largest retailer, for its involvement in item-level RFID tagging
trials. These trials, involving tens of thousands of British shoppers,
set an unacceptable example for the retail industry.

I appeared on BBC's Newsnight program to announce the boycott to
millions of UK consumers last night. (Streaming video of this
announcement will be available online today only; see details below.)
Tesco is taking the boycott seriously and issued a statement to the BBC
acknowledging the trials, while attempting to downplay their
importance.

If you are a Tesco shopper, please join the boycott. Stop by your local
store this week and tell the manager that you intend to shop elsewhere
until they stop putting RFID tags on consumer products. If you cannot
avoid shopping at Tesco, we ask that you purchase only strictly
necessary items there.

Next, please refer friends, family members and colleagues to our
informational website,  http://www.BoycottTesco.com, and ask them to join
you. If you have a website or blog, please print a mention of the
boycott and post a link to the new site.

The boycott will remain in effect until Tesco assures us that no
products on their shelves have been RFID tagged. The only way to stop
the escalation of RFID on consumer products is to send a strong economic
message to Tesco that consumers won't stand for it.

In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN

=======================================================
VIEW THE BBC SEGMENT ONLINE (AVAILABLE UNTIL TONIGHT ONLY)

Tuesday's Newsnight program will be available for replay today until
10:30 PM London time/5:30 PM New York time at the Newsnight website:

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/newsnight/newsnight.ram.

Real Player users can scroll forward to the 30:44 time stamp to view the
Tesco RFID segment.

=======================================================
OUR PRESS RELEASE

January 26, 2005

CASPIAN ANNOUNCES WORLDWIDE TESCO BOYCOTT ON BBC TELEVISION
Consumers react to UK retailer's planned expansion of item-level RFID

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering)
has launched a worldwide boycott of Tesco in response to the retailer's
escalating use of RFID on consumer products. CASPIAN Founder and
Director Katherine Albrecht made the announcement to millions of viewers
watching BBC Newsnight, the popular UK news program, on Tuesday.

Tesco is the world's third largest retailer, with over 2,300 stores
across Europe and Asia.

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, a controversial
technology that hooks miniature antennas up to tiny computer chips
smaller than a grain of sand to track items at a distance. The
technology raises privacy concerns because RFID tagged items can be
monitored invisibly right through items consumers normally consider
private, like clothing, purses, backpacks and wallets.

During the BBC segment, Albrecht outlined CASPIAN member objections to
Tesco's expansion of its item-level RFID tagging trials, saying they
"would involve potentially hundreds of thousands more shoppers....it
essentially means that more people will be taking home items containing
[RFID] spychips." She concluded, "that's simply unacceptable."

Newsnight correspondent Paul Mason said Tesco was taking the
announcement of the boycott "seriously," and read a prepared statement
from the retailer that was intended to assure consumers that the store
did not have plans to track products after purchase.

Mason concluded that "all the big names in this [RFID] industry will be
watching this battle very intently."

Tuesday's Newsnight program will be available for replay until Wednesday
evening at the Newsnight website:
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/newsnight/newsnight.ram. Real
Player users can scroll forward to the 30:44 time stamp to view the
Tesco RFID segment.

CASPIAN has launched  http://www.boycottTesco.com in conjunction with its
boycott announcement. The site details Tesco's RFID involvement,
including its past misconduct with the controversial Gillette RFID
"smart shelf."

Albrecht vows to maintain the boycott until Tesco complies with the
moratorium on item-level RFID tagging of consumer goods as outlined in a
position statement endorsed by CASPIAN and over 40 of the world's
leading privacy and civil liberties organizations. (See Position
Statement on the Use of RFID on Consumer Products at
 http://www.spychips.com/jointrfid_position_paper.html)

"We believe Tesco's decision to pursue item-level RFID tagging is
irresponsible," Albrecht added. "We're calling on consumers to boycott
the chain until the practice is stopped. If people must shop at Tesco,
we are asking them to reduce their purchases. After all, as Tesco says,
'every little helps.'"

James Mata
- e-mail: zombiewire@cox.net
- Homepage: http://www.zombiewire.com

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

ANOTHER REASON TO BOYCOTT TESCO

27.01.2005 21:07

"Every little helps" - Tesco's, the cheap supermarket for shoppers on a tight budget: Tesco's the friend of the poor. YEAH RIGHT.

Do you know why everything's so f***** cheap in Tesco's? Because they're constantly finding ways to pay their suppliers (particularly farmers growing vegetables etc) less and less, while paying their checkout staff peanuts too.

ALL supermarkets do this, make no mistake. But if Tesco's is a cheaper option (well, apart from Asda which is owned by Walmart, and a few similar ones) where's that extra saving coming from? Certainly not out of its enormously great big fat stinking profits.

See the book "Shopped" for more info on supermarkets and their sins.

I hate supermarkets!


get your own RFID detector

27.01.2005 23:00

You can get your own pocket device for detecting these nasty RFID chips. Only problem is you have to build it yourself. This is described in a current hobbyists electronics magazine - Practical Electronics. Not too hard if you know a bit about electronics and can solder. Probably not recommended if you don't have that knowledge.

bright spark


Links please

28.01.2005 08:17

Do you have a link to the circuit?

I can use a soldering iron and would like to be able to sniff these things out!

Any circuits for rfid zappers? or do they blow light bulbs at 20 paces!

silent bob


more on build your own detector

30.01.2005 10:08

Sorry. I got the magazine wrong. It's in fact Elektor magazine, available from larger newsagents.
I would upload a photo of the circuit diagram but it would probably be rather pointless. Being an RF circuit, layout may be critical and besides, the detection coil is implemented using PCB trackwork so you really do need to acquire the bare PCB from the magazine publishers.

bright spark
- Homepage: http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/