RFID-Zapper Shoots to Kill

"German privacy advocacy group FoeBuD plans to manufacture and sell a device that consumers could used to disable RFID tags permanently. The gadget—called the RFID-Zapper—was developed by two students in Berlin, Germany."

"The young inventors say their motivation was concern over the potential use of RFID tags on individual items purchased by consumers. "We read a lot about RFID and its future use and got worried," says Mahajivana. "Some easy way of getting rid of them had to be found."

That's good news. When the controversy first arose about RFIDs' potential uses and abuses, I'd hoped someone would take up the challenge and build something to fry'em. Proponants of the chips say they're no big deal, but that may only be the case today. There's no telling what the technology will bring tomorrow. Can't get the Zapper yet, but hopefully there'll be quite a few others putting them on the market by the time the chips are in wide use.

These guys say they'll post instructions on how to build it so anyone can, but currently it's only had limited testing, and the warnings they give will probably be enough to keep most people from even trying it. The big problem; using a Zapper around other electrical devices, and using it to kill tags within electrical devices. In a word; "Don't". Consider it a 'beta', and not ready for prime-time.

However, if you like to tinker, keep an eye on their hangout for futher news....
RFID-Zapper

Whether you're interested in the device or not, I recommend checking out the rest of RFID Journals' site. Some of the content is restricted to subscribers, but there's plenty of info for free.