Is the Convenience of RFID Worth the Privacy Trade-Off?

Is the Convenience of RFID Worth the Privacy Trade-Off?

By Crystal K. Wiebe
St. Joseph News-Press
12/03/06 4:00 AM PT

RFID microchips, which can be embedded on most anything, already expedite the re-fueling process for some at the gas pump and allow commuters to pay tolls without even stopping. Earlier this year, the U.S. government began issuing RFID-tagged passports. Increasingly, retailers like Wal-Mart use the technology to better manage inventory. But privacy concerns have long been associated with RFID.

By now, most of us who waste any time watching television have seen the MasterCard commercial where the marathon runner ducks into a convenience store mid-race.

The munchie stop doesn't cost him the race because he doesn't have to sign a credit card receipt. He simply waves his card before a special scanner and leaves the store.

Like its competitors, MasterCard's new product incorporates radio frequency identification technology, which uses radio waves to automatically identify people and objects.

Becoming More Mainstream
RFID microchips, which can be embedded on most anything, already expedite the re-fueling process for some at the gas pump and allow commuters to pay tolls without even stopping.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government began issuing RFID-tagged passports. Increasingly, retailers like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) use the technology to better manage inventory. But privacy concerns have long been associated with RFID.

"It's not the safest thing in the world," says Anthony Johnson, a sales associate at RadioShack.

He's attracted to the convenience of the new credit cards, but, for now, he prefers to pay for things the old-fashioned way.

"Once one of those things gets stolen," Johnson says, "you're kind of a fish in a barrel."

Easy Access
Theoretically, anyone with the right equipment could lift data, which on a credit card is very personal, from an RFID tag.

Some Web sites encourage people to wrap their RFID-embedded credit cards and passports in tinfoil to prevent information lifting.

Fearing an "Orwellian world where law enforcement officials and nosy retailers could read the contents of a handbag -- perhaps without a person's knowledge," the Electronic Privacy Information Center Web site suggests disabling RFID tags from consumer products or boycotting the companies that use RFID.

"Chips integrated into commonplace products such as floor tiles, shelf paper, cabinets, appliance, exercise equipment and grocery and packaged products would allow even our most intimate activities to be monitored," the Web site predicts.

Symbol Technologies in Holtsville, N.Y., makes business products that utilize RFID. Alan Melling, senior director of business development, says the technology is "much less exciting than people make it out to be."

Noting that the public was initially wary of bar codes, he says RFID'S risks are exaggerated.

In the retail sector, where RFID tags contain little more than barcode information, he says, a better stocked store is the only threat to the consumer.

Melling says he read a study in which Wal-Mart stores that used RFID experienced 16 to 30 percent fewer stockouts.

"Most people in retail do it just to know how many pairs of jeans do I have in the store and where are they in the warehouse," he says.