Fergie's Tech Blog

California: Raising Privacy Alarm Over RFID

Edwin Garcia writes in The Mercury News:

Attempting to prevent a potential clash between privacy rights and the latest technological advances, a Palo Alto lawmaker is trying to dissuade the state government, schools and private businesses from tracking people through the use of radio frequency identification devices such as electronic cards and implanted devices.

A legislative package of four measures by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, will be introduced in an Assembly committee today that would prohibit an employer from implanting tiny ID chips in workers, block RFID technology from being embedded in driver's licenses, prohibit schools from issuing ID cards to track student attendance and make it a misdemeanor to skim identification cards - a method by which identity thieves secretly read the cards of unsuspecting people and clone new versions.

His measures, vociferously opposed by the tech industry, were prompted in part by the increasing availability of wireless equipment sold in stores and cyberspace that can read employee badges - even if they are in someone's pocket or purse 20 feet away - and create a new card using that individual's personal information.

posted by Fergie @ 6/19/2007 05:16:00 PM