Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 9:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] what can we do?


> What can we do??
> snip<
> What is driving world affairs is our (collective) lifestyle.
> snip<
> ONLY a drastic reduction in consumption is going to make a difference. 
> And
> make no mistake, that reduction is coming either voluntarily or by dire
> necessity.
>
> My money is on the latter.

= = = = =

In line with this, not only a reduction but selective use spending, talk 
with your $$.

Lynda

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2006

SPYCHIPPED LEVI'S BRAND JEANS HIT THE U.S.
Levi Strauss Confirms RFID Test, Refuses to Disclose Location

It may be time to ditch your Dockers and lay off the Levi's, say privacy
activists Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre. New information
confirms that Levi Strauss & Co. is violating a call for a moratorium on
item-level RFID by spychipping its clothing. What's more, the company is
refusing to disclose the location of its U.S. test.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a controversial technology that
uses tiny microchips to track items from a distance. These RFID microchips 
have earned the nickname "spychips" because each contains a unique 
identification number, like a Social Security number for things, that can be 
read silently and invisibly by radio waves. Over 40 of the world's leading 
privacy and civil liberties organizations have called for a moratorium on 
chipping individual consumer items because the technology can be used to 
track people without their knowledge or consent.

Jeffrey Beckman, Director of Worldwide and U.S. Communications for
Levi Strauss, confirmed his company's chipping program in an email exhange
with McIntyre, saying "a retail customer is testing RFID at one location
[in the U.S.]...on a few of our larger-volume core men's Levi's jeans 
styles." However, he refused to name the location.

"Out of respect for our customer's wishes, we are not going to discuss any 
specifics about their test," he said. Beckman also confirmed the company is 
tagging Levi Strauss clothing products, including Dockers brand pants, at 
two of its franchise locations in Mexico.

McIntyre was tipped off to the activity by a mention in an industry
publication. The article indicated Levi Strauss was looking for additional 
RFID "test partners."

Albrecht believes the companies are keeping mum about the U.S. test
location in order to prevent a consumer backlash. Clothing retailer
Benetton was hit hard by a consumer boycott led by Albrecht in 2003
when the company announced plans to embed RFID tags in its Sisley line of
women's clothing. The resulting consumer outcry forced the company to
retreat from its plans and disclaim its intentions.

Levi Strauss can little afford similar problems with consumers. It is one of 
the world's largest brand-name apparel marketers with a presence in more 
than 110 countries, but has suffered through several years of declining 
sales as younger consumers gravitate to new brands. The company has also 
been hurt by Wal-Mart's decision to cut back on inventory in a bid to shore 
up its own declining sales.

While Levi Strauss reports that its current RFID trials use external
RFID "hang tags" that can be clipped from the clothes and the focus
is on inventory management, not customer tracking, the company isn't
guaranteeing how it will use RFID in the future.

"Companies like Levi Strauss are painting their RFID trials as innocuous," 
observes Albrecht. "But this technology is  extraordinarily dangerous. There 
is a reason why we have asked companies not to spychip clothing. Few things 
are more intimately connected with an individual than the clothes they 
wear."

"Once clothing manufacturers begin applying RFID to hang tags, the
floodgates will open and we'll soon find these things sewn into the
hem of our jeans," Albrecht adds. "The problem with RFID is that it is
tracking technology, plain and simple."

Albrecht and McIntyre point out that tracking people through the
things they wear and carry is more than mere speculation. In their book
"Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your
Every Move with RFID," they reveal sworn patent documents that
describe ways to link the unique serial numbers on RFID-tagged items with 
the
people who purchase them.

One of the most graphic examples is IBM's "Identification and Tracking of 
Persons Using RFID-Tagged Items." In that patent application, IBM inventors 
suggest tracking consumers for marketing and advertising purposes.

"That's enough to steam most consumers," says McIntyre."But IBM's
proposal that the government track people through RFID tags on the
things they wear and carry should send a cold chill down our
spines."

IBM inventors detail how the government could use RFID tags to track
people in public places like shopping malls, museums, libraries,
sports arenas, elevators, and even restrooms.

"Make no mistake," McIntyre adds. "Today's RFID inventory tags could
evolve into embedded homing beacons. Unchecked, this technology could
become a Big Brother bonanza and a civil liberties nightmare."