"The privacy impact of letting manufacturers and stores put RFID chips in the clothes, groceries and everything else you buy is enormous," said Bowen. "There's no reason to let RFID sneak up on us when we have the ability to put some privacy protections in place before the genie's out of the bottle."
Retailers and manufacturers hope to save millions of dollars by automating the retail supply chain with RFID tracking systems, but privacy advocates fear RFID will become as omnipresent as video surveillance and give marketers another method of tracking people's whereabouts, interests and habits. SB 1834 requires any business or state government agency using an RFID system that can track products and people to:
oTell people they're using an RFID system that can track and collect information about them.
oGet express consent from people before tracking and collecting information.
oDetach or destroy RFID tags that are attached to a product offered for sale before the customer leaves the store.
"It really comes down to three basic principles," continued Bowen. "First, you have a right to know when and where RFID technology is being used. Second, anyone using RFID should get your consent before they collect information about you. Third, the 'default' should be that RFID tags on products get removed or destroyed when you walk out the door, which takes care of many of the privacy concerns -- not the least of which is the fear that as you walk through the mall, everything you're wearing and carrying could one day be identified as you walk by RFID readers."
The San Francisco Public Library Commission plans to start tagging library books with RFID chips by 2005-06. Questions have been raised about whether the technology will give anyone with an RFID reader, including homeland security agencies and businesses, the ability to track and identify people and the library books they're carrying.
Bowen chairs the Senate Subcommittee on New Technologies, which held two hearings on RFID technology and privacy (August 18, 2003 and November 20, 2003).
SB 1834 will be assigned to a Senate policy committee in the coming weeks.
