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Senate Bill 1834 would apply to any business or state government agency using radio frequency identification (RFID) systems to track merchandize or people--an
The bill proposes that businesses and agencies be required to notify people that they're using an RFID system that can track and collect information about them. It would also require consumers to give express consent before businesses or agencies could track and collect information about them via RFID. Lastly, the legislation requires retailers to
"The privacy impact of letting manufacturers and stores put RFID chips in the clothes, groceries and everything else you buy is enormous," Bowen said in a statement. "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."
RFID has existed for years, but many industries are finding
The roster of high-tech companies developing hardware and software specialized for RFID includes Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Sun Microsystems, and is rapidly growing. Many hope to cash in on what analysts say will be a multibillion-dollar market within the next five years.
Consumer advocate Katherine Albrecht lauded Bowen's bill, noting that it could have a national impact because so many companies do business in California. "It's very disturbing, this idea that you could be wearing a homing device of sorts and have no way of protecting yourself or even knowing about it," Albrecht said. "(This bill) is long overdue."
Albrecht is the head of a nonprofit group called
Jack Grasso, a spokesman for the pro-RFID group
Retailers expect to save billions of dollars by using RFID systems to cut inventory costs. RFID advocates say those savings could be passed down to consumers in the form of lower prices and warn that unwise RFID legislation could interfere with such benefits.
EPCglobal, which is a branch of the Uniform Code Council--the group that administers bar codes, has formed a lobbying group with the help of Procter & Gamble, Gillette, the National Retail Federation and others, Grasso said. The group seeks to influence public policy and has already met with members of Congress, he said.
Bowen, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on New Technologies, has been an active sponsor of technology-related legislation, introducing bills that would regulate spam, face recognition technology and consumer data collection. She held two hearings on RFID technology and privacy last year where Albrecht and others
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This same technology is what MOBIL OIL uses in their keyfob that you put up against the pump to activate it and what is in those little boxes you stick on the cars windshield that allow you drive on the TOLL ROADS and get billed automatically. It's also what those "Lost & Found" chips inserted in your Dog or Cat are; you wave the transmitter over them and the chip responds with the code number that is then looked up in a database.
All of these devices require a CLOSE PROXIMITY to the transmitter to respond since they require the energy from the RF transmission to function. The Orwellian view of this technology is just conspiracy therorist "fear of the unknown" hype. There is NO WAY to associate what you are buying with WHO YOU ARE unless you use one of those supermaket "club cards" when you shop.
RFID's are just the next generation of BAR CODES; remember all the hype when they came out?? The only difference here is the way the data is read, by Radio Frequency instead of Optical Scanner.