Check out the Photographic Protest Evidence!

Listen up, Wal-Mart: "No spychips!"

Protest with us in Amherst, NH on November 25th, 2005.

Let's send a clear message to Wal-Mart: Don't mess with NH. We will not tolerate spychipped products.

<--- We found an RFID tag just like this one affixed to a Hewlett-Packard printer on a shelf in a NH Wal-Mart store in October. Selling spychipped products violates the call for a moratorium issued by CASPIAN and over 40 of the world's leading privacy and civil liberties organizations. You can find more photos showing Wal-Mart's in-store use of RFID here.

RFID poses serious risks to privacy and civil liberties. Wal-Mart is the 800-lb gorilla of the retail industry, and the key force driving the use of RFID today. By forcing its suppliers to invest in RFID for shipments, Wal-Mart has driven hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in the RFID infrastructure.

Photo: © Liz McIntyre

"In New Hampshire we live free!
We don't want RFID!"

CASPIAN members in New Hampshire will be holding an "awareness raising" event to protest Wal-Mart's use of RFID and to tell the company to stop selling spychipped products.

	Date: Friday, November 25th, 2005
	Time: Noon to 1:30 PM
	Place: Wal-Mart, 85 Route 101A, Amherst, NH               (See map and directions below)
	Please include your name, phone number, and let us know how many will be in your party.

For more details contact protest at spychips.com

Everyone is welcome to attend this event. We encourage you to bring a friend, or a whole group of friends. This is a family event so small children and teenagers are welcome. The more the merrier (or mightier)!

If you can't attend the protest but want to offer moral support, please use our feedback page.

While it is not essential, you should try to bring a protest sign. Be sure your sign is legible from a distance. Use bold, black letters that contrast with the background. Your message should be clear, concise, and easily understood at a glance. No profanity, please.

If you're artistic, consider these ideas: "Stop RFID" stop signs, RFID tags with a circle and a line through them, lipsticks (Wal-Mart sold spychipped lipstick), RFID=1984, etc. Signs reading "No Spychips!" and "www.spychips.com" are also welcome.

Check out photos from our other protests for ideas.

German anti-RFID protest by our colleagues from FoeBuD

Dallas, TX anti-RFID protest

Bedford, NH anti-RFID protest

Other CASPIAN protest photos archived here
 

• Click Here for Driving Directions from MapQuest
  

Our press release:

Privacy group to protest at Wal-Mart against controversial RFID technology

Consumers fuming about controversial 'spychip' technology at Wal-Mart

Amherst, NH, November 19th, 2005 - Joel Rauch has much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving - an RFID labeling bill sailed through the Commerce Committee this week. But are the gifts he plans to give this Holiday season laced with RFID tags?

"I just don't know," Rauch said. "I'd hate to give spychips to my loved ones. But as long as retailers like Wal-Mart are tagging items that customers take home, it's a risk that we take every time we make a purchase."

RFID tags, often referred to as "spychips", store and can wirelessly transmit information through your clothing, wallet, or purse. Some passive RFID tags transmit data up to 20 or 30 feet. Others can be as small as 0.4 square millimeters and thinner than a sheet of paper. A statewide consumer watchdog group called NHCASPIAN (www.nhcaspian.org) is taking the lead to protect consumer privacy in New Hampshire against these tracking devices.

According to Joel Rauch, Founder of the New Hampshire chapter of CASPIAN, "Wal-Mart has introduced item level RFID tagging to the Granite State; Hewlett Packard is spychip-tagging printers for sale at Wal-Mart." Recently, Arnie Arnesen revealed such a tag on My TV Prime. As the cameras rolled, she peeled back an innocent looking sticker to expose the thin Rafsec butterfly tag that served as the antenna for the tiny RFID chip.

"Some, not all, manufacturers are labeling the packages of spychipped items. One industry symbol is the letters 'EPC' arranged in a cube," Rauch said, cautioning consumers to be alert for it. "Passive RFID tags can last for years. People need to be aware that spychips they buy now can invade their privacy for a long time."

Rauch added, "Wal-Mart's use of RFID on these items disregards the recommendation of over 40 of the world's leading privacy and civil liberties organizations who have called on retailers to voluntarily abstain from placing RFID tags on individual items." In response to Wal-Mart's actions, NHCASPIAN is holding an anti-RFID protest at noon on Friday, November 25th, at the Amherst Wal-Mart Supercenter. All concerned citizens are invited to attend.

The movement appears to be picking up steam rapidly. A similar protest in Dallas, Texas attracted 75 protestors in October. Yet another protest at the Wal-Mart in Bedford, New Hampshire attracted 26 protestors only three weeks ago.

CASPIAN is a national consumer watchdog group opposed to RFID, supermarket "club cards", and programs which track consumer purchasing habits.

"Wal-Mart's item-level RFID tagging initiative is dangerous and irresponsible. And it's especially worrisome when you consider who Wal-Mart's business partners are," said Katherine Albrecht, founder of CASPIAN and co-author of the bestselling book "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID."

"We discovered that Wal-mart's partners - companies like NCR, IBM, Sensormatic, and Procter & Gamble - have developed extensive plans to monitor and track people and exploit them commercially through RFID tags in the things they buy," Albrecht said.

"Current investments in RFID by Wal-Mart and the U.S. government are creating an economy of scale for this technology that will cause an explosion in the use of spychips over the next few months," warned Mike Fisher, an NHCASPIAN volunteer. "Anyone paying attention is infuriated about it."

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Summary:

What:  Protest against spychips (radio frequency identification tags).
How:  Protest in front of Wal-Mart.
Where:  Amherst Wal-Mart Supercenter, 85 Route 101A, Amherst, NH  03031
When:  Friday, November 25, from noon to 1:30pm.
Who:  NHCASPIAN, CASPIAN, the New Hampshire Underground, and supporters.
Why:  RFID is a major threat to every consumers' privacy.
Position paper:  http://www.spychips.com/jointrfid_position_paper.html

The NHCASPIAN.org and Spychips.com websites are projects of
CASPIAN, Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and
Numbering. © Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre 2003-2006.