Katina Michael

The pros and cons of RFID in supply chain management

This paper presents the pros and cons of using radio-frequency identification (RFID) in supply chain management (SCM). While RFID has a greater number of benefits than its predecessor, the bar code, it currently comes at a price that many businesses still consider prohibitive. On the one hand, RFID is advantageous because it does not require line-of-sight scanning, it acts to reduce labor levels, enhances visibility, and improves inventory management. On the other hand, RFID is presently a costly solution, lacking standardization, it has a small number of suppliers developing end-to-end solutions, suffers from some adverse deployment issues, and is clouded by privacy concerns. Irrespective of these factors, the ultimate aim of RFID in SCM is to see the establishment of item-level tracking which should act to revolutionize SCM practices, introducing another level of efficiencies never before seen.

The Emerging Ethics of Humancentric GPS Tracking and Monitoring

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is increasingly being adopted by private and public enterprise to track and monitor humans for location-based services (LBS). Some of these applications include personal locators for children, the elderly or those suffering from Alzheimers or memory loss, and the monitoring of parolees for law enforcement, security or personal protection purposes. The continual miniaturization of the GPS chipset means that receivers can take the form of wristwatches, mini mobiles and bracelets, with the ability to pinpoint the longitude and latitude of a subject 24/7/365. This paper employs usability context analyses to draw out the emerging ethical concerns facing current humancentric GPS applications. The outcome of the study is the classification of current state GPS applications into the contexts of control, convenience, and care; and a preliminary ethical framework for considering the viability of GPS location-based services emphasizing privacy, accuracy, property and accessibility.

Control, trust, privacy, and security: evaluating location-based services

Location-based services (LBS) are those applications that utilize the position of an end-user, animal, or thing based on a given device (handheld, wearable, or implanted), for a particular purpose. This article uses scenario planning to identify the possible risks related to location-based services in the context of security and privacy. The original contribution of this article is that the dilemma has been related specifically to LBS, under the privacy-security dichotomy. Here, each side of the dichotomy is divided into three key components that combine to greatly magnify risk. Removing one or more components for each set decreases the privacy or security risk. Where more elements are present in conjunction, the risk is increased

A research note on ethics in the emerging age of überveillance

Advanced location-based services (A-LBS) for humancentric tracking and monitoring are now emerging as operators and service providers begin to leverage their existing infrastructure and invest in new technologies, toward increasingly innovative location application solutions. We can now point to humancentric tracking and monitoring services where the person (i.e. subject) has become an active node in the network. For example, in health applications through the use of embedded technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) or in campus applications through the use of electronic monitoring techniques in the form of global positioning systems (GPS). These technologies, for the greater part, have been introduced into society at large, without the commensurate assessment of what they will mean in terms of socio-ethical implications. Of particular concern is the potential for these innovative solutions to be applied in government-to-citizen mandated services, increasing the ability of the state to collect targeted data and conduct covert surveillance on any given individual, described herein as uberveillance. This paper aims to define, describe, and interpret the current socio-ethical landscape of advanced location-based services for humans in order to promote discourse among researchers and practitioners to better direct telecommunications policy.

Factors affecting privacy disclosure on social network sites: an integrated model

The self-disclosure of personal information by users on social network sites (SNSs) play a vital role in the self-sustainability of online social networking service provider platforms. However, people’s levels of privacy concern increases as a direct result of unauthorized procurement and exploitation of personal information from the use of social networks which in turn discourages users from disclosing their information or encourages users to submit fake information online. After a review of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the privacy calculus model, an integrated model is proposed to explain privacy disclosure behaviors on social network sites. Thus, the aim of this paper is to find the key factors affecting users’ self-disclosure of personal information. Using privacy calculus, the perceived benefit was combined into the Theory of Planned Behavior, and after some modifications, an integrated model was prescribed specifically for the context of social network sites. The constructs of information sensitivity and perceived benefit were redefined after reviewing the literature. Through a study on the constructs of privacy concern and self-disclosure, this article aims at reducing the levels of privacy concern, while sustaining online transactions and further stimulating the development of social network sites.

Lend me your arms: The use and implications of humancentric RFID

Recent developments in the area of RFID have seen the technology expand from its role in industrial and animal tagging applications, to being implantable in humans. With a gap in literature identified between current technological development and future humancentric possibility, little has been previously known about the nature of contemporary humancentric applications. By employing usability context analyses in control, convenience and care-related application areas, we begin to piece together a cohesive view of the current development state of humancentric RFID, as detached from predictive conjecture. This is supplemented by an understanding of the market-based, social and ethical concerns which plague the technology.

Toward a State of Überveillance [Special Section Introduction]

Uberveillance is an emerging concept, and neither its application nor its power have yet fully arrived [38]. For some time, Roger Clarkes [12, p. 498] 1988 dataveillance concept has been prevalent: the “systematic use of personal data systems in the investigation or monitoring of the actions of one or more persons.”

Barriers to RFID Adoption in the Supply Chain

This paper will explore the interplay between the retailers dilemma of product shrinkage and the solutions advocated by RFID vendors and associations to minimise product shrinkage. RFID as an emerging technology holds the potential to fulfil the needs of stakeholders in the supply chain.

Location-based intelligence - modeling behavior in humans using GPS

This paper introduces the notion of location-based intelligence by tracking the spatial properties and behavior of a single civilian participant over a two-week study period using a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, and displaying them on a geographic information system (GIS). The paper clearly shows the power of combining speed (S), distance (D), time (T) and elevation (E) data with the exact longitude and latitude position of the user. The issues drawn from the observation and the civilians personal diary are useful in understanding the social implications of tracking and monitoring objects and subjects using GPS. The findings show that while GPS has been used in some very innovative ways, there are a plethora of ethical dilemmas associated with its use on civilians, even if they are requesting a given service and paying for its utilization. From the information recorded during the field observation, a number of inherent technical limitations in GPS were identified which add to the complexity of such related areas as law and commerce. In conclusion, while the benefits of GPS for specific applications is apparent, safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that information gathered by the GPS is not misused or abused. One can envisage that if the wrong hands obtain location information records for individual subscribers that the potential exposure and risk might be even greater than that of stolen credit cards.

Planetary-Scale RFID Services in an Age of Uberveillance

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) has a great number of unfulfilled prospects. Part of the problem until now has been the value proposition behind the technology-it has been marketed as a replacement technique for the barcode when the reality is that it has far greater capability than simply non-line-of-sight identification, towards decision making in strategic management and reengineered business processes. The vision of the internet of things (IOT) has not eventuated but a world in which every object you can see around you carries the possibility of being connected to the internet is still within the realm of possibility. However incremental innovations may see RFID being sold as a service (much like photocopiers are maintained today) than a suite of technologies within a system that are sold as individual or bundled packaged components. This paper outlines the vision for such a product service system, what kinds of smart applications we are likely to see in the future as a result, and the importance of data management capabilities in planetary-scale systems.