Consumer Group Attacks Levi's RFID Program
An advocacy group for consumer privacy has asked San Francisco–based Levi Strauss & Co. to put an end to its item-level RFID (radio frequency identification) pilot program, which has several Levi-affiliated stores tagging merchandise with the controversial wireless tags.
Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN), which calls RFID tags “spy chips,” said on April 27 that Levi’s is violating CASPIAN’s call for a moratorium on the tags, which the group argues can potentially extract personal information from consumers.
Jeff Beckman, Levi’s director of worldwide and U.S. communications, confirmed that the company is aiding a U.S. retailer and a few foreign-franchised retailers with its RFID initiatives. He declined to name those stores.
The wireless tags contain coded information pertaining to color, style number and sizing and are attached to clothes via hang tags. They are used solely to track inventory, Beckman said. The pilot tests were initiated by the retailers and not by Levi Strauss, he added.
“Companies like Levi Strauss are painting their RFID trials as innocuous, but this technology is extraordinarily dangerous,” said CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht. “There is a reason why we have asked companies not to spy-chip 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. The problem with RFID is that it is tracking technology, plain and simple.”
Beckman said that the RFID tags being used by its dealers are removed at the point of sale.
“The tags can only be read from about 2 to 3 feet away,” Beckman said. “The goal is for the retailer to replenish product once it’s sold so the retailer won’t be in an out-ofstock position. One of the retailers using it in Mexico City says it’s been very effective.”
Beckman added that Levi’s has no immediate intentions to use the technology at its company-owned stores.
Mass merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. have been using RFID at the warehouse level for the past 18 months .
—Robert McAllister
