The European Commission has decided that RFID tags should be turned off in products in detail stores.
The proposal was submitted last week by European commissioner Vivian Reding and should guarantee privacy for citizens as well as development of new technology.
A representative of the EC has citated that the proposal can be accepted before the summer if all 27 state members approve it.
So far for the news. Now, my point of view is that the RFID technology brings serious privacy concerns. The fact is that the Electronic Product Code can give any product, worldwide, a unique identification number. From a privacy perspective, it is mostly worrisome that the chip can be read out without the user notifying it.
Someone who's wearing a chip, let's say in his glasses or watch, can be identified as a unique person with the help of special equipment available at any specialized store.
In the business world, the expectations are high because they want to use RFID to identify and trace objects. In contrary of the innocent application of RFID labeling in logistics and distribution, the use of RFID labels can violate the privacy rights and expectations of the consumers on large scale.
The technology makes it also easy to view people's buying behaviour.
This can be done, even before someone actually pays, by putting a chip in a customer card.
Thanks to RFID labeling, stores can see how long a consumer stands still at a certain rack, which products he/she takes out of the rack but puts back, or even which route he/she takes in a superstore.
But governmental applications can form maybe an even greater danger to the public.
In my country, Belgium, citizens must carry a passport/identification card at any time when on the road.
These passports contain an RFID chip because the government says it will use the information to create a central database with biometric data, face characteristics and finger prints.
Such a database is a much larger danger because this gives the government the chance to create new detection methods to identify, let's say, strangers on cameras.
It is clear to me that the decision made by the European Commission is a step forward to eliminate all these dangers for the public.
Let's just hope they don't blow it up again because our privacy is at stake here.
