According to a recent Chicago Sun Times investigative feature, Wal-Mart
and Procter and Gamble (P&G) have been found to be concealing high tech
tracking devices in their consumer products and hiding cameras in store
displays.
The tracking devices, known as Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID), can be as small as a grain of sand, and, so far, they have been
detected in P&Gs Lipfinity products at Wal-Mart, as well as in Gillette
razors and Benetton clothes. The electromagnetic tracking devices can be
read through clothes and walls.
P&G admits this was just a trial-run of
tracking devices it would ultimately like to use in all
products—serving as "the barcode of the future," and "strictly for
marketing research."
Katherine Albrecht, the Director of Consumers
Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, said, "This trial is
a perfect illustration of how easy it is to set up a secret RFID
infrastructure and use it to spy on people."
In addition to the "spy
chips", hidden cameras were also discovered in store displays, allowing
P&G to watch shoppers from hundreds of miles away. Wal-Mart does not
deny having prior knowledge of the hidden cameras and tracking devices,
given the fact that their employees set up those very same displays.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/rfid111303.cfm
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