The company is one of the first to trial the controversial radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in its Mach 3 razor blade packets. Supermarket chain Tesco has been testing the tagged products in a Cambridge store.
But privacy groups started protesting outside the Tesco store when it emerged the supermarket was automatically taking photographs of shoppers when they picked the blades up off the shelf and when they left the shop with any tagged product.
US-based group Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (Caspian) is also urging a worldwide boycott against Gillette over the tagging concerns.
Caspian founder and director Katherine Albrecht said: "We want to send a clear message to Gillette and other companies that consumers will not tolerate being spied on through the products they buy."
But Gillette has hit back at the "misleading" claims, saying it only wants to use the RFID tags to improve the efficiency of its supply chain. The chips, when inserted into products, emit radio signals that allow them to be tracked.
Gillette spokesman Paul Fox told silicon.com: "Our intention is very much pallet-and-case application within our supply chain. We have never nor do we have any intention to track, photograph or videotape consumers."
Tesco's Cambridge trial finished at the end of July and it is now running a pilot with RFID tags in DVDs at its Sandhurst store.
A Tesco spokesman said the photographing of consumers was just part of a range of uses the supermarket chain is looking at for the tags.
"We are just looking at the benefits. It is blue-sky stuff. The camera use was a side project to look at the security benefit."
Talkback
The probleme here is that Tesco undoubtedly photographed customers AND tracked the customer leaving the store without informning the customer before hand - the customer did not get the choice to opt-out of being tracked, ie by visiting a differnt supermarket - therefore what Tesco did was underhand.
If these tags were merely being used for internal pallet and supply tracking, why were they not de-activated or removed before the product in question was put on display on the aisles.
In this case shoppers were being photographed without their knowlege, surely this is an invasion of personal privacy and as such can be construed as at least a civil offence and I believe leaves the company in question open to litigation.
Legislation must be introduced as quickly as possible to curtail use and advise the general public regarding the use and location of these devices in products otherwise the we will all be subject to totally unwarranted exploitation, intrusion and observation purely at the behest of corporate vested interest.
This company should be boycotted, where this technology is not needed. Man is getting to reliable on technology which will maybe one day put him in a vegetative state. The companies want to save monies at any cost. They can take their chips and have them with fish, but I won't be using them. I no longer shop at the places planning to use these.
Im sure it helps deter shop lifting, i know mach 3 blades are shop lifters favorates because of there value and how easy they are to steal and sell but this definately infringes customers civil rights by having their photos taken with out their permission. Tescos should be boycotted and i hope people on "raise" target this store for other products.
At the risk of stating the "bleedin' obvious" could it be that the items in question are just plain overpriced? The cost of these things puts me in mind of the replacement ink cartridge pricing scam perpetrated by certain leading printer manufacturers.
And yes I do own a Mach3 razor!
Does anyone know how the data in these tags is read? Is it specific to the company scanning the chips (and untillegible) to anyone else. Or can anyone buy an rfid reader and wander around obtaining meaningful information about what other people have been buying ./ doing?
folks: here is something to ponder: rfid is originally designed to tag cows!!
RFID works like this:
an antenna (usually huge ones) emit a radio wave that 'ask' nearby tags to report themself.
the tag is a passive device, with no battery. it gains the energy to report back by converting part of the radio wave energy to electricity.
it could be 2 way or 1 way comms: 1 way means antenna "ask: who are you?" and the tag answers "I am gilete stock number 123, expires 12/2003"
2 way means:
antenna ask "who are you?"
tag answers "I am a gilete"
antenna ask "ok, now your name is shick"
tag answers "ok, new name accepted"
It is interesting to have a handheld antenna and retrive data from individual tags. maybe should try that.
As usual the privacy lobby is getting hot and bothered about something mostly harmless. Tesco was unwise to trial the technology by photographing customers, but most shops record our every move by CCTV anyway, so nothing new there. And what about the ability to match you image to a specific can of beans? Well, the supermarket can already match your account details to "Tesco Value Beans", and that's much more interesting from their point of view. You have to be fairly paranoid to fear someone scanning your dustbin and discovering that you bought those actual beans from Tesco Metro in Cambridge on a wet Thursday last month.
There are too many knee jerk reactions to this which is mainly aimed at security and tracking products. By 2006, shoppers at supermarkets will bag as they go, and these RFID tags will automatically count contents of trolleys (karts), enabling much better security and allowing an efficenet shopping routine.
It's interesting to speculate about how far and wide this technology may be used. For example, someday in the future you may be able to walk down a busy street and be able to tell who is concealing weapons, who's wearing a Rolex watch, etc. with your own handy dandy little interpreter. Certain items carried onto airplanes either in your carry-on or checked luggage would automatically be known. Great potential here...for good and for evil. Like all technology.
Why is it any different than using video surveilance cameras? So what if Tesco's saw me select and pay for a razor? Everywhere we go there are hundreds of cameras tracking us, most shops and high streets have CCTV. If RFID and it's implementation has benefits for the supply chain and passes on benefits to customers then I have no problem. Obviously other more sinister uses of RFID I would probably disagree with but in this case involving Tesco I have no issue.