GILLETTe's spy shelf photographs CUSTOMERS!!

Big Brother technology now trained on razor buyers" - Silicon.com
"The world's stupidest anti-shoplifting campaign" - CommsWorld

Gillette has been caught hiding tiny RFID surveillance chips in the packaging of its shaving products. These tiny, high tech spy tags are being used to trigger photo taking of unsuspecting customers!



Image Source: ID Tech Ex Magazine.
(Use for educational purposes protected under U.S. copyright law.)

The tracking system uses sensors hidden under Gillette shelves to detect when products are picked up. Whenever a shopper picks up a packet of razor blades from a spy shelf, SNAP! A hidden camera secretly takes a closeup photo of the shopper's face. (And a second photo is snapped at the cash register to make sure the product is paid for!)

Image Source: ID Tech Ex Magazine. (Use for educational purposes protected under U.S. copyright law.)

Gillette's spy shelves have been uncovered in England and we suspect they have been tested at various locations around the United States and other countries.

The Gillette spy shelf and the associated hidden camera application were developed at the MIT Auto-ID Center, during the time that Gillette VP Dick Cantwell was the head of the Center's Board of Overseeers. This industry consortium has produced documents, pictures, and video promoting the use of Gillette "smart shelves" to take secret photos of unsuspecting customers


http://www.boycottgillette.com/spychips.html

I think it's a great idea, just needs some development and have the system so wide open that you can see what data the shop has stored about you and allows you to delete all their data about you after you paid the store. Also have the RFID related data stored only on the customers "card/pda/mobile" or whatever, so that nothing isn't stored on the shop's db, but they can wirelessly read your card/pda/mobile while you are inside the shop.

This is one of the worst ideas i have ever seen!

What is the distance an RFID device can be detected? I am just curous as to how car i can go and a store track my purchase.

RFID is great when it is used the way Wal-Mart wants it. To expidite operations in distribution centers and streamline inventory counts. This example is just bad.