One Problem, Many Solutions

RSA Security, a leading provider of digital security products, has developed a "blocker tag" that will prevent RFID tags in the same reader field from being read. The tags are not yet in production, but RSA says they can protect privacy while providing consumers and businesses the benefits of RFID tags. A blocker tag would essentially confuse an interrogator, preventing it from reading any tags in its zone (see RSA Security Designs RFID Blocker).

Two students turned an ordinary point-and-shoot camera into a device that destroys RFID tags by overloading their circuits with a pulse of electromagnetic energy. The German privacy advocacy group FoeBuD plans to manufacture and sell the device—the RFID-Zapper—to concerned consumers (see RFID-Zapper Shoots to Kill).

In last week's column, (A Moratorium on Stupidity), I mentioned Skim Black, a credit-card-sized piece of material that its manufacturer, Japan's Orient Instrument Computer, says will block 99.99 percent of electromagnetic radiation. Skim Black can be placed in your wallet and will prevent a tag in an ID from being read.

The most attractive security solution to hit the market so far, in my view, comes from the Danish Company RFIDsec. This solution gives control of a tag to the consumer, who would essentially have to give someone permission to read the tag for after-sales support, returns or other business applications (see RFIDsec Unveils Privacy-Protected Tags). Consumers would own a digital key allowing them access information on the tag, so they could use the tags in products they buy for their own benefit. I've said all along that as the technology matures, consumers will eventually have control over how tags in the products they buy are used, and this is exactly what the RFIDsec solution attempts to do.

Opponents of RFID will do their best to argue against each of these solutions—and, in truth, they might have some legitimate issues. One is that most put the burden on consumers to protect themselves. But the point is not that one or all of these is the right solution. It's that even with RFID still in its infancy—very few items consumers buy today have tags in them—products are being developed to address the privacy issue.

There will be many more products introduced to ensure consumer privacy as the technology matures. That's why I don't worry that the privacy issue will be a big impediment to adoption.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below.