May 03, 2006
RFID = Privacy Concerns?
If any two terms have become synonymous, those terms would be "RFID" and "privacy concerns."
At issue is the ability of retailers and others to use data collected via RFID devices for nefarious purposes, such as tracking people and what they do and where they go after making a retail purchase. (Use of RFID to track items in the supply chain is of less concern to consumer groups and privacy advocates.) Two recent announcements directly address these privacy concerns.
First discussed late last year, IBM has formally formally announced that it has developed a feature that limits the distance an RFID tag can transmit information. The Clipped Tag lets consumers disable RFID tags on items after purchase and lets companies use the information on the tag to identify product returns or recalls. Consumers can tear the Clipped Tag label along a perforated edge to remove part of the tag's antenna after purchasing an item to reduce the signal distance the chip can transmit. "The tag rips about a quarter inch from the chip to disable part of the antenna," said Eric Gabrielson, director of worldwide RFID solutions. "You can still read the information on the chip, but the reader and tag need to be within one inch, rather than many feet."
In a related announcement, a working group made up of large companies, public interest groups, and consumer advocates has released a set of "best practices" designed to promote respect for consumer privacy in the use RFID. The document offers guidance for companies that use RFID technology to collect data that can be linked to consumers' personally identifiable information. Drawn largely from principles of "fair information practices," the best practices outline how consumers should be notified about RFID data collection, what choice they should have with regard to their own personal information, and how that information should be treated by the companies that collect it. Organizations contributing to the document include the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Library Association, Cisco Systems, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, the National Consumers League, VeriSign, and Visa USA, among others
For more information on RFID, see:
Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:27 AM Permalink
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