Privacy Concerns Dog IT Efforts to Implement RFID

Computerworld - BOSTON -- Privacy concerns related to the use of radio frequency identification technology are reaching new heights, as legislators increasingly look to restrict RFID deployments and corporate employees criticize efforts to use it in identification badges.

At the same time, champions of the technology contend that not enough is being done to promote the value of RFID. For example, they say, it can be used to track tainted foods or counterfeit drugs or to reduce inventory-tracking costs.

IT executives attending the RFID World conference here last month said employee fears have forced some companies to change or even cancel plans to use badges embedded with RFID technology.

About 150,000 workers at The Boeing Co.s Integrated Defense Systems unit in 70 countries now use RFID- embedded badges to gain access to buildings, said Steven Georgevitch, senior manager of supply chain technology. But adding the technology to ID badges at the St. Louis-based aircraft manufacturer was not an easy task, he acknowledged.

Implanting RFID chips in badges is a really, really big concern among employees, Georgevitch said. Employees will always ask ... Will they track me in the bathroom?

Georgevitch said the company was able to overcome many of the privacy concerns by working closely with employees to explain the purpose of the technology and to hear their comments, he said.

Most IT people never want to talk to workers, but I say go test [RFID with them] so people feel comfortable, he said.

At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, employee concerns prompted the abandonment of plans to add RFID technology to employee badges about a year ago, said CIO John Halamka.

The staff reaction was, Oh my God, Dick Cheney just wants to watch me, said Halamka, who is a Computerworld columnist.

Halamka said the Boston-based health care organization uses RFID to track medical equipment, which cuts the staff time previously needed to find the devices.

Ben Aderson, manager and counsel for technology policy and state government affairs at the AeA, formerly known as the American Electronics Association, noted that more and more state legislatures are seeking to limit the use of RFID technology.

While RFID privacy concerns are taken very seriously in state governments across the U.S., most legislators dont understand the value of the technology, he contended.

Aderson said 50 bills aimed at limiting RFID were introduced in 19 states in 2007, and three became law.

However, he noted, nothing catastrophic has passed to completely ban RFID in a state.