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Retail EDITOR'S NOTE
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Ubiquitous RFID and Privacy
The benefit of tagging recyclable items is to increase the amount of goods recycled, and to improve sorting so they can then be recycled more easily. So let's say a municipal government agreed to provide data to marketers, or to allow the company performing the recycling to sell that information. What would be the result? Obviously, people who didn't want marketers to know everything they buy would cease recycling, thereby defeating the purpose of tagging in the first place.
Retailers also have a disincentive to collect information about customers who don't explicitly opt in. Many people don't want to have their purchases tracked. They don't want ads to target them personally, as they did through retina scans in the movie Minority Report. So retailers that utilize RFID data to target advertising to customers without their knowledge or permission would likely lose revenue.
Some retailers might foolishly attempt to track people without their knowledge, and then use that data either in aggregate form, or to target ads to specific customers, but when they were found out—and they would be found out—they would have a huge public relations problem on their hands. And they would lose business, because people opposed to this kind of tracking would not shop at their stores. That would be an object lesson for other retailers: Abuse your customers' trust, and you'll lose their business.
As I expected, market forces are shaping RFID's evolution to enhance customer privacy. Impinj and NXP, for example, have developed RFID chips with enhanced privacy features that not only enable you to kill a tag at checkout (a feature of EPC tags from the beginning), but actually allow a retailer to replace the Electronic Product Code with a random serial number. That way, if a person walks out of a drugstore with a bottle of Viagra, no one could read the tag and know what the product was.
There will be cases in which unscrupulous companies or individuals abuse the technology, just as some Web sites have collected data from children. But when there are common abuses and no market forces to prevent them, governments step in and pass laws against the bad behavior, so that the police can put a stop to the abuse. All of us who believe RFID will deliver great benefits to companies and consumers are opposed to laws that limit the technology, but we are in favor of those that restrict bad behavior.
There is no doubt that new technologies can have a significant impact on consumer privacy. Facebook and YouTube have had their share of issues, for instance, and RFID undoubtedly will as well. But I don't worry that the technology will have a negative impact on consumer privacy. Instead, I worry that ignorant legislators trying to score points with uninformed voters will pass laws that limit the many benefits RFID can deliver—and that is a much bigger threat to consumers.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or the Editor's Note archive.
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Retailers also have a disincentive to collect information about customers who don't explicitly opt in. Many people don't want to have their purchases tracked. They don't want ads to target them personally, as they did through retina scans in the movie Minority Report. So retailers that utilize RFID data to target advertising to customers without their knowledge or permission would likely lose revenue.
Some retailers might foolishly attempt to track people without their knowledge, and then use that data either in aggregate form, or to target ads to specific customers, but when they were found out—and they would be found out—they would have a huge public relations problem on their hands. And they would lose business, because people opposed to this kind of tracking would not shop at their stores. That would be an object lesson for other retailers: Abuse your customers' trust, and you'll lose their business.
As I expected, market forces are shaping RFID's evolution to enhance customer privacy. Impinj and NXP, for example, have developed RFID chips with enhanced privacy features that not only enable you to kill a tag at checkout (a feature of EPC tags from the beginning), but actually allow a retailer to replace the Electronic Product Code with a random serial number. That way, if a person walks out of a drugstore with a bottle of Viagra, no one could read the tag and know what the product was.
There is no doubt that new technologies can have a significant impact on consumer privacy. Facebook and YouTube have had their share of issues, for instance, and RFID undoubtedly will as well. But I don't worry that the technology will have a negative impact on consumer privacy. Instead, I worry that ignorant legislators trying to score points with uninformed voters will pass laws that limit the many benefits RFID can deliver—and that is a much bigger threat to consumers.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or the Editor's Note archive.
READERS' COMMENTS
Marketing Manager
Here's a blurb from our blog: http://www.xerafy.com/blog Commenting on your article. Lately, the Internet of Things has been all the buzz and is the connecting of everyday objects and devices to large databases and networks via RFID, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC etc. It will turn static objects into dynamic things, create intelligence in our environment and will dramatically change the way we live, interact and connect forever. Politicians billed it as the next stage of development for technology-enabled living -- many governments around the world are now looking to building advanced IT-based infrastructures and ubiquitous information services into the urban spaces. With this comes the benefit of integrated information processing which industrial products and everyday objects will take on smart characteristics and capabilities. They may also take on electronic identities that can be queried remotely or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them. RFID is probably the most mature and pivotal of these technologies with established standardization protocols and existing commercial applications. With new advances in technology, such as embedded RFID and nanotechnology, it means that smaller and a greater number of things will have the ability to be tagged and connected in a sensory and intelligent manner. Internet of Things is a digital interplay of people, technology and e-governance with real and virtual environments. Imagine the future, sans flying cars and hot tub time machines, when public recycling bins use RFID to credit recyclers every time they toss in a bottle; pressure-sensitive floors in the homes of older people that can detect the impact of a fall and immediately contact help; cell phones that store identification records and can be used to pay at retail stores. Ubiquitous, convenient but when the data is used inappropriately for whatever reasons; it raises privacy concerns and the specter of a surveillance society. (They'll know whether I recycled my beer bottle?!)
Posted By: K. Stark 7/01/2010 at 6:46:06 AM
Well said
"...are opposed to laws that limit the technology, but we are in favor of those that restrict bad behavior. " This is very well put. I would also said that this is the whole point. "...I worry that ignorant legislators trying to score points with uninformed voters will pass laws that limit the many benefits RFID can deliver—and that is a much bigger threat to consumers. " "Funny", but these same ignorant legislators seem to have no objections against any other thing/method/technology that can be used to track anyone by any means;)
Posted By: S. heino 7/02/2010 at 3:40:53 AM