Digital blunder exposes 'dirty tricks' in RFID war

A leading US retail trade group has been forced to apologise to an RFID activist after it mistakenly sent her an internal email about how it was trying to dig up her "juicy past" to use against her.

A Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) press officer initially emailed Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (Caspian), to request a copy of her bio.

When Albrecht wrote back querying why the GMA wanted the information she was mistakenly sent an email clearly meant for someone else within GMA.

The email said: "I don't know what to tell this woman! 'Well, actually we're trying to see if you have a juicy past that we could use against you'."

Albrecht, who is behind a high-profile US-based campaign to prevent retail stores and supermarkets from using the controversial RFID tracking tags in products over fears they will compromise consumers' privacy, said the email was "disturbing".

Manly Molpus, CEO of the GMA, has now issued an apology to Albrecht and said the comments were made by an intern and were a "youthful indiscretion".

"Her request for a copy of your bio was simply a part of a normal effort to obtain information about those who lead organisations with an interest in industry issues," he said in a letter to Albrecht.

Albrecht said the incident might now actually lead to talks between the GMA and privacy groups about the future use of RFID.

"GMA has expressed an interest in participating in further discussions about the use of RFID in consumer goods. We look forward to a future dialogue with them and member companies about the serious privacy and civil liberties implications of RFID technology," she said in a statement.

No one at GMA was immediately available for comment.