Protecting Consumer Privacy

The article made me realize that, with the increasing power of computers, the day might not be far off when retailers can identify customers the moment they walk in the store, by using facial recognition software. Privacy advocates fear that companies will use RFID to build up giant personal profiles of their customers—by embedding tags in clothes and linking them to personal information when they pay—that could be used to identify them in stores, and then pitch them products. They say this makes RFID a unique threat to privacy. But the BusinessWeek story suggests retailers might not need RFID at all to do this, that intelligent video-surveillance systems would work just as well—or better.

The story also says retailers are looking at RFID's potential role in thwarting thieves. It mentions the possibility of using smart shelves with built-in RFID readers and antennas to detect when several items have been removed, indicating a possible theft in progress. The system could alert security guards to watch the person who lifted the items to make sure he or she pays. This could work better than electronic article surveillance systems, which don't alert security until someone has passed a portal at the door—when it's often too late.

The BusinessWeek story also mentions Gatekeeper Systems' Purchek product, which it describes as RFID—even though it's not. The system uses a transmitter that emits very-low-frequency (below 9 kHz) RF signals to a digital circuitry board in the shopping-cart wheel. The wheel translates the coded signal and, depending on the specific signal received, triggers a motor inside the wheel either to engage or disengage an internal brake. If someone is leaving the store without paying, the cart locks up. This system is not RFID because the receiver in the shopping-cart wheel does not have a unique identifier. There is no transponder and no exchange of data.

It's not a given that RFID will ever be used in theft-prevention systems in stores, but even if it's not, it will be in stores for inventory control and other purposes. So RFID will continue to be a technology privacy advocates will be watching. That's understandable. But what the BusinessWeek story clearly shows is that the privacy issue—and any legislation to protect privacy—must not be tied to any one type of technology. Rather, it must focus on the rights of consumers to privacy, and the rights of businesses to protect themselves from being robbed while doing business in the most cost-efficient way.