August 31, 2005
RFID legislation - misunderstood technology?
When it comes to RFID there are various groups of people with different schools of thought. The RFID legislation that came into being in California recently might be a step by such a group which wants the technology to be vetoed without weighing its pros and cons. True, like any other technology it has its share of trepidations, however it has been here for sometime now and has never failed to bring excitement in the scientific circles.
Automated tracking of various goods and humans across industries has been its key feature and it has found pioneers in companies like Metro, Wal-Mart, Tesco and has been used extensively by the US Department of Defense for supply chain adoptation. The legislation came into being because some Californian legislators felt that there might be security issues with the technology being used for licenses and identification cards and wanted an outright ban.
The first part of the California state bill offers some insights on management and protection while using RFID in indentification cards, however further it goes on to disallow its use in four broad areas for the next three years. This might hamper the positive talks that were going on for best practices with RFID. AIMglobal reports:
RFID should not be immediately adopted in driver licenses, identification cards, library cards, health insurance and benefits cards or student identification cards but legislation such as CA SB 682 will effectively "pause" the educated dialogue that is needed to formulate the guidance and best practices where the technology can offer benefit as well as the guidance on where it does not make sense for privacy or business reasons.
Read more: Editorial: RFID Legislation -- Protection or Pause Button?
--
Did you enjoy this post?
« Foremost Executives are to Meet to Discuss RFID Issues | Main | IDTechEx reveals RFID market trend »
