CASPIAN
Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering


July 21, 2003

Dick Cantwell
Vice President, Global Business Management
Gillette Grooming Products
Prudential Tower Building
Boston, MA 02199-8004

Subject: RFID, Photographing and Tracking Consumers

Dear Dick Cantwell:

On July 10 we asked the MIT Auto-ID Center Board of Overseers, of which you are Chairman, to share information about item-level product tagging. Specifically, we asked the following three questions:

1. What consumer products are currently being individually tagged with RFID devices? What products have been tagged in the past?

2. What retail stores are selling or have sold RFID-tagged items to consumers? Please provide specific store location information.

3. Where can consumers get details about information collected when they interact with RFID-tagged items at these locations? For example, are consumers being tracked, videotaped, or photographed?

When the Board did not provide relevant answers to the these questions, we posed our questions again on July 16. Since we have not received a satisfactory response to our questions from the Board, and in light of recent revelations that Gillette may be directly or indirectly supporting the tracking and photographing of consumers without consumer knowledge or consent, we are posing the questions directly to you and Gillette.

Please provide a thorough and timely response to the three questions listed above on behalf of Gillette. In addition, we request assurances on the following two points:

1. Gillette will not place radio frequency identification (RFID) devices on or in consumer items or packaging unless the products and packages contain full disclosure about the devices and implications of the devices, and

2. Gillette will not condone the photographing and tracking of consumers without consumer knowledge and consent.

We believe that consumers have a right to know when they are interacting with technology that could compromise their privacy and/or health, and we look forward to sharing your responses with the public.

Sincerely,

Katherine Albrecht
Founder and Director, CASPIAN

cc: Paul Fox, Gillette Director of Global External Relations
Kevin Ashton, Director, MIT Auto-ID Center
web site: http://www.nocards.org
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