Dr. Katherine Albrecht is a consumer privacy advocate, Vice President (VP) of Startpage.com[1] and spokesperson against radio-frequency identification (RFID). Albrecht devised the term "spy chips" to describe RFID tags such as those embedded in passport cards and certain enhanced United States driver's licenses. Albrecht holds Doctorate in Human Development and Consumer Education from Harvard University.[2]

Katherine Albrecht
Born1968 (age 55–56)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard Graduate School of Education
Occupationconsumer privacy advocate
Known forVice President (VP) of Startpage.com


Albrecht was interviewed about RFID chips in Aaron Russo's 2006 documentary America: From Freedom to Fascism.

Publications edit

Books edit

Albrecht and Liz McIntyre (CASPIAN's communications director) co-authored the book Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move, which won the November 2005 Lysander Spooner Award for advancing the literature of liberty. The book lays out the potential implications of RFID on privacy and civil liberties. RFID industry representatives have criticized it, claiming the authors exaggerate some RFID privacy threats. In a lengthy rebuttal, Albrecht asked why critics don't "mention sworn patent documents from IBM describing ways to secretly follow innocent people in libraries, theaters, and public restrooms through the RFID tags in their clothes and belongings? Where is […] outrage over BellSouth's patent-pending plans to pick through our garbage and skim the data contained in the RFID tags we discard?"[3]

Articles and papers edit

  • Albrecht, Katherine. "Supermarket Cards: The Tip of the Retail Surveillance Iceberg." Denver University Law Review, Volume 79, Issue 4, Summer 2002. pp. 534–539 and 558–565.
  • Position Paper on the Use of RFID in Consumer Products. Co-authored with Liz McIntyre and Beth Givens. November 14, 2003. [1]
  • "RFID: The Doomsday Scenario." In: RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy, eds. S. Garfinkel and B. Rosenberg. New Jersey: Addison Wesley. 2006. pp. 259–273.
  • "RFID: The Big Brother Bar Code." (Co-authored with Liz McIntyre) ALEC Policy Forum, Winter 2004, Volume 6, Number 3, pp. 49–54.

Radio talk show host edit

Previously, she hosted a two-hour daily program called Uncovering the Truth with Katherine Albrecht on the We The People Radio Network (WTPRN)[4] from April 2007 until the network ceased all programming in October 2008. Albrecht later broadcast The Dr. Katherine Albrecht Show on the GCN Radio network until 2016.

Religious beliefs edit

Albrecht believes that RFID chips and other emerging technologies could lead to the Mark of the Beast. She has written a children's book called I Won't Take the Mark: A Bible Book and Contract for Children.[5]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Startpage: a 'private' search engine, but who'll care?". Crikey. 2010-06-01. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  2. ^ Jim Isaak (2014). "Dr. Katherine Albrecht".
  3. ^ Albrecht, Katherine, Dismantling the RFID Journal's critique of spychips Archived 2006-11-17 at the Wayback Machine, spychips.com, 14 November 2005, retrieved 21 January 2008
  4. ^ "Katherine Albrecht show on WTPRN". Archived from the original on 2008-08-27. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
  5. ^ Albrecht, Ed D.; Albrecht, Katherine (2014). I Won't Take the Mark: A Bible Book and Contract for Children. Virtue Press. ISBN 978-0988280212.

External links edit