Sept. 1, 2003—Researchers at the Auto-ID Center have long known that radio frequency identification technology raises consumer privacy issues that must be addressed. The group’s position paper, released on Sept. 1, is a first step in allaying concerns that RFID could be used to track individuals. The three principles state very broadly that consumers will always have the following rights:

• to know when they are in a location where Electronic Product Code (EPC) readers are used and that the products they are buying contain EPC tags.
• to have EPC tags in the products they buy permanently deactivated, without cost or penalty.
• to buy EPC tagged products without having their personal information electronically linked to the EPC number in the product.


AutoID Inc., a subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council charged with commercializing EPC technology, will have to turn these policies into industry guidelines. That's going to take a while because there are many complex issues to work through. For instance, does each item need a label informing people it has an EPC tag and, if so, how big does it have to be? How big do notification signs in stores have to be? And does each checkout counter need a sign telling consumers they can choose to have EPC tags deactivated, or will one sign near the entrance suffice?

While these issues are debated, privacy advocates and the press are going to continue to demand answers from companies that are experimenting with the technology. Manufacturers and retailers may get away with insisting that they are only testing RFID in the supply chain, but that won't work for long. The more extreme privacy advocates could make false accusations if cases tagged for supply chain tracking wind up on retail shelves. And many companies may want to tag high-value items that are often stolen from stores, such as CDs, DVDs, video games and women’s lingerie