A BBC article reports on how The European Commission is creating a group comprised of citizens, scientists and businesses to discuss how RFID tags should be used. Is this merely an attempt by The European Commission to placate the growing privacy concerns surrounding RFID chips by being seen to be listening to citizens?
Despite the fact that some retailers are already using RFID tags on their products, the Commission have been reluctant to draft any regulations for the tags. Walmart have already insisted that it’s suppliers all use RFID tags however, Viviane Reding, the information society and media commissioner said that the RFID market must be allowed to continue unabated without any regulations from European governments. Reding said, “We must not over-regulate RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)"
Industry experts such as Tim Cole, a senior partner with the analyst group Kuppinger Cole and Partner remain sceptical that the Commission will help to protect individual privacy. Cole, in a Computer World article, said that businesses were already implementing RFID “through the back door”.
Cole also claimed that while big business was seemingly reacting to the public’s concern with RFID tags, it was not out of any sense of social responsibility, but rather, because “…it's bad for business if customers are worried. According to the Computer World article, the RFID market “is worth about $2.9 billion today, with 600 million tags sold in 2005, Reding said. That number will increase sixfold in seven years, she predicted, to 3.6 billion tags sold in 2013.
With companies across the globe embracing RFID technology, it is scandalous that the European Commission felt it unnecessary to draft any legislation whatsoever on how RFID tags could be used. These tags are getting smaller all the time, and with no regulations placed on business it would be all too easy to place these tags into products without consumers being aware that they were in them. Hitachi have even announced on their own site that they are now producing chips that are as small as a single grain of sand.
Unless there is tight regulation of RFID tags it means that once again, individual privacy has been sacrificed in the name of big business.
For more information visit Council of Truth.com and the European Commission Information Society
