RFID wiggles its way into credit cards?

[Obviously credit card companies have the right to RFID-outfit their 
cards, and obviously we have the right to take our business elsewhere if 
we object. Still, is this RFID? It's not clear from the article, and the 
Slashdot discussion doesn't help much 
(http://slashdot.org/articles/05/05/19/2313238.shtml?tid=98&tid=172). 
--Declan]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Credit Cards with RFID tech?
Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 11:59:57 -0400
From: Perez, Jose   (TBS) <Jose.Perez@turner.com>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@well.com>

I think Politech people will be interested in this story:

The 'wave' of the future
J.P. Morgan Chase set to issue new 'contactless' credit card that you 
wave instead of swipe.
May 19, 2005: 11:22 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Tired of swiping your credit card over and over 
because the magnetic strip is worn? Help is on the way: cards that you 
just wave, rather than swipe.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (Research), the nation's largest credit-card 
issuer, said Thursday it will issue a new credit card with so-called 
"blink" technology that can be waved in front of a special reader, as 
well as being swiped through a traditional terminal.

The nation's No. 2 bank said it will start rolling out the cards this 
summer and reissue new "blink" cards to existing customers.

"We believe these innovative cards with blink will provide merchants and 
cardmembers with the increased speed and convenience they want at the 
point-of-sale," Carter Franke, chief marketing officer of the company's 
credit card division, said in a statement.

<http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/19/news/economy/express_pay/index.htm?cnn=yes>
Posted by Declan McCullagh on May 20, 2005 in category privacy