CyberCivics

Digital Privacy Curriculum

Unit 2: Digital Privacy Issues and Activities—RFID

Timeline

Approximately 2 class sessions

Objectives

  • Briefly describe what RFID is and how it works
  • List some common applications for RFID technology and describe its advantages
  • Given an RFID reader and several tags, describe how factors such as antenna size, orientation, and power levels affect the range of readers
  • Discuss some privacy concerns associated with RFID in consumer products, access control, etc.

SuggestedActivities

  • On the first day, discuss the RFID reading with students to cover the points in the first two objectives. Then have students set up the RFID exploration kits. This involves plugging the RFID reader into the USB slot of the computer and starting the rfidioprogram provided with the RFID software. With this software running, students can experiment with passing a variety of RFID tags included in the kits over the reader. When the reader “sees” a tag, the computer will emit a beep and a message will be printed showing the ID number of the tag. Ask students to take notes on their experiments, recording the maximum distance at which each different sort of tag could be read. They should also experiment with varying the orientation (flat, sideways, etc.) of the tags when attempting to read them. At the conclusion of the activity, discuss the results. Based on the data collected, students should be able to surmise that the tags with larger antenna can be read from the greatest distance. The instructor can also emphasize information presented in the reading on how power levels affect effective reading distance.
  • On the second day,split the students into groups and have them set up the RFID kits in preparation for an access control activity. In the first part of this activity, each student receives an RFID tag, and a designated student within each group will run the setup program provided with the RFID software, recording the students’ name in association with their tag ID numbers. Once this data is recorded, students simulate the comings and goings at a typical workplace that uses RFID access control by running the entry program provided with the RFID software. To enter the workplace, students pass their tags over the reader. If the tag has been properly set up, the student’s name will be printed and access will be granted. Otherwise, access is denied. Finally, each group should run the report program, which will print the name of each person who entered or exited, along with the time of each event.In class discussion following this activity, students should be encouraged to imagine the various ways in which this data might be used by employers. This activity and subsequent discussions can provide a nice segue into the next topic: databases and data mining.