Fergie's Tech Blog

FIFA Criticizes World Cup Data Gathering

John Blau writes on InfoWorld:

Regardless of the outcome of the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany several weeks away, the games already have their place in history: Never before have fans attending an event organized by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) been required to provide so much information about themselves that can be accessed so quickly.

More than 3.5 million tickets will be sold with an embedded RFID (radio frequency identification) chip containing identification information, to be checked against a database as fans pass through entrance gates at all 12 stadiums in June.

It's the first World Cup tournament to use RFID technology to identify cardholders, and it's not likely to be the last. But, if one senior FIFA official has his way, the amount of personal information required of fans -- all of which is quickly identifiable with the help of RFID -- will be kept to a minimum.

posted by Fergie @ 4/12/2006 04:47:00 PM