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<b>Online Exclusive:</b> RFID Starts to Draw Additional Congressional Attention
On July 13, the Senate RFID Caucus will hold its first meeting, with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) as co-chairs. The creation of the new caucus indicates the importance that the Senate is placing on understanding the privacy implications, technological hurdles, and security benefits of emerging Radio Frequency Identification ('RFID') technology.
RFID enables real-time tracking of the movement of objects through the placement of tags (or transponders) on the objects that send out radio waves. Already, RFID is widely used in applications such as 'smart cards' for drivers to pay highway tolls or for manufacturers or retailers to track goods.
More recently, RFID developers have suggested that it can be a very effective security tool, and the U.S. Department of Defense is using RFID in some applications. However, as RFID reaches more mainstream uses, it is raising privacy issues, especially because people's movements can be tracked.
“We want to maintain U.S. leadership and competitiveness in RFID, while being mindful of privacy and security concerns,” said Cornyn's office in a statement announcing his co-sponsorship of the caucus.
Although legislation is not imminent, the authors of the RFID Law Blog (http://rfidlawblog.mckennalong.com/) suggest that issues such as developing standards and ensuring interoperability will be at the top of the agenda. Federal legislation eventually also could define which personally identifiable information could be electronically collected, how long it could be held, and with whom it could be shared.
However, the issue is highly sensitive. For example, in May 2006, the U.S. House blocked funding for a pilot program to enable the Agriculture Department to use RFID to track cows as a way to work back to the source of a food-borne illness outbreak. Yet, the House is apparently strongly in favor of requiring mining companies to deploy RFID for all underground miners, in the wake of accidents that killed miners earlier this year (HR 4695).
On July 13, the Senate RFID Caucus will hold its first meeting, with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) as co-chairs. The creation of the new caucus indicates the importance that the Senate is placing on understanding the privacy implications, technological hurdles, and security benefits of emerging Radio Frequency Identification ('RFID') technology.
RFID enables real-time tracking of the movement of objects through the placement of tags (or transponders) on the objects that send out radio waves. Already, RFID is widely used in applications such as 'smart cards' for drivers to pay highway tolls or for manufacturers or retailers to track goods.
More recently, RFID developers have suggested that it can be a very effective security tool, and the U.S. Department of Defense is using RFID in some applications. However, as RFID reaches more mainstream uses, it is raising privacy issues, especially because people's movements can be tracked.
“We want to maintain U.S. leadership and competitiveness in RFID, while being mindful of privacy and security concerns,” said Cornyn's office in a statement announcing his co-sponsorship of the caucus.
Although legislation is not imminent, the authors of the RFID Law Blog (http://rfidlawblog.mckennalong.com/) suggest that issues such as developing standards and ensuring interoperability will be at the top of the agenda. Federal legislation eventually also could define which personally identifiable information could be electronically collected, how long it could be held, and with whom it could be shared.
However, the issue is highly sensitive. For example, in May 2006, the U.S. House blocked funding for a pilot program to enable the Agriculture Department to use RFID to track cows as a way to work back to the source of a food-borne illness outbreak. Yet, the House is apparently strongly in favor of requiring mining companies to deploy RFID for all underground miners, in the wake of accidents that killed miners earlier this year (HR 4695).
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