Privacy in Peril ; Radio Frequency Ids Have Big Brother Potential

Summary

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Advances in technology, coupled with post-9/11 demands for heightened security and burgeoning efforts by criminals to steal personal data, have combined to create a confusing and often frightening situation with regard to personal privacy. How can we protect our privacy without quashing useful technologies?

The latest concern involves RFIDs, or Radio Frequency ID trackers, which transmit data from, say, your company ID card to a card reader connected to a security door. The California state Senate has recently passed, and the Assembly may soon consider legislation by Sen. Joe Simitian, a Democrat from Palo Alto, that would place a three-year moratorium on the use of these devices by government agencies. It also mandates encryption devices by agencies that want to use RFIDs, and makes it against the law to skim data from the cards.

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Extract

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Privacy in Peril ; Radio Frequency Ids Have Big Brother Potential

That's a reasonable approach to the issue, one that makes necessary distinctions between beneficial private uses of new technology and mandatory government uses. It's the kind of legislation that's needed at the national level.

Today,...

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