CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) has launched a dedicated web site, BoycottTesco.com.
"We believe Tesco's decision to pursue item-level RFID tagging is irresponsible," said CASPIAN founder and director Katherine Albrecht. "We're calling on consumers to boycott the chain until the practice is stopped. If people must shop at Tesco, we are asking them to reduce their purchases. After all, as Tesco says, 'every little helps'."
RFID tags consist of a microchip and a tiny antenna that transmits data from the chip to a reader. The reader is activated whenever the antenna comes into range and the data can be used to trigger an event – such as ringing up a purchase or ordering more stock.
The tags have already been used in retail. In August 2003 Tesco trialled the tags in Gillette razor blade packaging in its Cambridge store; Marks & Spencers tested them to assist with stock control; and Wal-Mart now has over half of its top suppliers using RFID tags, albeit not necessarily on individual items.
CASPIAN is worried by the technology, which is widely expected to replace the bar code, claiming that tagged items can be monitored invisibly right through items consumers normally consider private, like clothing, purses, backpacks and wallets.
Tesco, the world's third largest retailer, with over 2,300 stores across Europe and Asia, has been trialling the tags mostly in relation to the back-store delivery and distribution of boxes and crates from its distribution centres.
It is also piloting the use of RFID tags in some individual goods being sold in some stores – most high value items such as DVDs.
Earlier this month Tesco reached agreement with ADT Security Services for the supply of 4,000 RFID readers and 16,000 antennae in the first phase of a multi-year contract, the largest order of its kind in the world.
The supply relates only to dock doors and merchandise receipt points at UK stores and distribution centres, but may be extended worldwide.
Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme, Albrecht explained that the expansion of the trials would "involve potentially hundreds of thousands more shoppers ... it essentially means that more people will be taking home items containing [RFID] spychips."
"That's simply unacceptable," she concluded.
Newsnight correspondent Paul Mason said Tesco was taking the announcement of the boycott seriously, and read a prepared statement from the retailer that was intended to assure consumers that the store did not have plans to track products after purchase.