RFID Gazette: Library RFID Tagging Sparks Privacy Concerns

July 27, 2004

Library RFID Tagging Sparks Privacy Concerns

More and more libraries are beginning to manage inventory and speed up the checkout process by inserting RFID chips on all of their books. The Berkeley Public Library is beginning the process this week, joining more than 300 RFID libraries around the world to date. Despite the advantages of library RFID use, concerns regarding privacy have mounted.

Katharine Mieszkowski at Salon.com writes:

Many libraries, including Berkeley, are declining to put the name of the book or even the book's ISBN, its international standard book number, on the microchip implanted in it. They're using a unique bar code number instead, one that would have to be hacked out of a library's circulation database to connect it to a specific title. That's not just to assuage the privacy concerns of readers. For inventory management, libraries need to track individual copies of books and not the words between a given book's covers.

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July 27, 2004 in Libraries, Privacy | Permalink