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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2008

Protest Today Against RFID in Clothing and Shoes
RFID WHERE? You'd better look at your shoes, socks and underwear!

Protesters will gather today in Manhattan to greet attendees of the
third annual "RFID in Fashion" conference, an event organized to promote
the use of RFID in clothing and footwear. Dr. Katherine Albrecht, the
Harvard-educated privacy campaigner featured in the film "Freedom to
Fascism" and co-author of the bestselling book "Spychips," will be
on-hand to speak to attendees arriving for the opening keynote this
afternoon at NYC's Fashion Institute of Technology.

The conference features two days of speeches and events to advance
apparel-industry uses for controversial Radio Frequency Identification
or RFID technology. Past attendees include New Balance Athletic Shoes,
Reebok, Levi Strauss, American Apparel, Liz Claiborne, and Jockey, along
with retail outlets The Limited, Timberland, and Dillard's.

Albrecht planned today's protest after discovering the conference would
promote the use of RFID in individual clothing items. Known as
"item-level tagging," the practice of placing RFID tags on consumer
items (rather than on crates or pallets in a warehouse) has been widely
condemned by privacy and security experts.

Experts caution that such tags pose huge privacy and safety risks to the
public. Used to track inventory in warehouses, RFID tags can easily be
used to track people as well – a fact that can be exploited by
marketers, government agencies, and criminals. IBM, for example, has
patented RFID "person tracking units" for placement in walls and floors
to allow marketers and government agents to secretly monitor people's
movements. They suggest using the devices in public spaces like shopping
malls, theaters, elevators, and restrooms once RFID is implemented at
the item level.

"Consumers shouldn't have to worry about tracking devices being sewn
into the seams of their clothing or pressed into the soles of their
shoes," said Albrecht. "We are putting apparel and RFID companies on
notice that consumers will protest any item-level use of RFID on
apparel."

In 2003, Albrecht's consumer group CASPIAN led a successful boycott
against Italian clothing manufacturer Benetton. The resulting worldwide
opposition forced the company to cancel plans to sew millions of RFID
tags into women's garments.

"Consumer awareness and opposition to RFID has grown exponentially since
2003," Albrecht said. "Any U.S. company foolish enough to use RFID on
apparel will face stiff repercussions."

The RFID in Fashion 2008 conference website can be found at:
http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/fashion/

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ABOUT CASPIAN

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering)
is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes
since 1999 and irresponsible RFID use since 2002. With thousands of
members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN
seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their
privacy and encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the
retail spectrum

OUR WEBSITES:


Human Chipping: http://www.AntiChips.com
RFID Tagging: http://www.spychips.com
Shopper Cards: http://www.nocards.org
Boycott Gillette: http://www.BoycottGillette.com
Boycott Tesco: http://www.BoycottTesco.com
Boycott Benetton (2003): http://www.BoycottBenetton.com


================================================================
ABOUT KATHERINE ALBRECHT

Dr. Katherine Albrecht is widely recognized as one of the world's
leading experts on consumer privacy, retail issues, and RFID, or "Radio
Identification Technology." She holds a Doctorate in Education from
Harvard University, was appointed by NH Governor John Lynch to serve on
that state's two-year RFID study commission, and is the director of
CASPIAN, a 20,000 member consumer privacy organization she founded in
1999.

Since 2003, Katherine has led the fight against unethical RFID use in
products and in people. She regularly testifies before lawmakers around
the globe and has given over two thousand television, radio and print
interviews to news outlets like CNN, NPR, Good Morning America, Business
Week and the London Times, to name just a few. Executive Technology
Magazine calls Katherine "perhaps the country's single most vocal
privacy advocate" and Wired magazine calls her the "Erin Brockovich" of
RFID."

================================================================

=====================================================================
ABOUT CASPIAN

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes since 1999 and irresponsible RFID use since 2002. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their
privacy and encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the retail spectrum.

http://www.spychips.com/
http://www.antichips.com/
http://www.nocards.org/

You're welcome to duplicate and distribute this message to others who
may find it of interest.

=====================================================================

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If you have difficulty with the web-based interface, you may also
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