RFID policy panel raises privacy concerns

IDG News Service - WASHINGTON -- Radio frequency identification technology has many benefits, but U.S. policy-makers need to be aware of its potential privacy and security problems, a privacy advocate and a security expert said yesterday.
A parade of RFID vendors and users championed the potential of the rapidly evolving technology at a U.S. Department of Commerce workshop on RFID and its policy implications. But Paula Bruening, staff counsel at the advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology, warned that RFID is one example of a growing trend toward businesses collecting and using their customers' personal data.
While most current forms of RFID aren't capable of compromising privacy by doing things such as tracking customers' movements, the technology is rapidly moving forward and may soon catch up to consumer and privacy advocates' fears, Bruening said. "We need to be forward-looking and address privacy concerns around this technology," she said.
RFID uses small processors and antennas that are integrated into a paper or plastic label. Those chips can then be read by an electronic scanner, and unlike bar codes, RFID chips withstand dirt and scratches. As the range of RFID scanning grows beyond the current 25 feet (7.6 meters), RFID could allow corporations and governments to track people's movements and purchases, privacy advocates have said.
But representatives of RFID technology vendors such as Texas Instruments Inc. and Microsoft Corp., along with users PepsiCo Inc. and General Motors Corp., talked of the potential for RFID to revolutionize the way companies manage their inventories, fight counterfeiters and stop shoplifters.
No one offered concrete cost-savings numbers, however. Pam Stegeman, vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, noted that because of the cost of RFID chips and readers, the technology is still not for everyone. Companies that sell products that are often counterfeited or stolen, or that ship mixed products on pallets, can most benefit from RFID, she said. RFID isn't a good solution for companies that sell many low-cost items, she said. RFID labels now cost about 50 cents each.
Already, RFID technology is used to track livestock, to find lost pets and to pay for gas and subway fares simply by passing an RFID-enabled card close to a reader. Applied Digital Inc., an RFID hardware vendor, even received U.S. government approval in October 2004 to offer RFID chips that can be implanted in humans, just as the chips are now implanted in dogs and cats. Such chips could contain a person's health records, which doctors could access in emergencies, said Scott Silverman, Applied Digital's chairman and