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The emerging RFID industry is not producing Orwellian and Kafkaesque chips. At least, not yet. But privacy advocates are already sounding loud and urgent alarms about the potential abuses of RFID technology.
At the consumer end, RFID technology has already touched off consumer backlashes. In 2005, Gillette Co. conducted a test at a store in Cambridge, U.K. that tracked and photographed shoppers taking RFID-tagged safety razors off the shelf to see if the technology could be used to deter shoplifting. The pilot resulted in protests and a consumer boycott that is still in effect today.
On the government front, proposed uses of RFID for human tracking have also generated storms of protest. In 2005, the U.S. State Department proposed using RFID chips containing personal information in passports to allow it to identify the holders.
The agency was bombarded with 2,400 negative comments from security professionals criticizing its proposal. A key concern was the use of active RFID chips, which emit a constant signal that can potentially be read by criminals covertly scanning passport holders at airports. The agency has since announced it will proceed with a revised plan using passive RFID chips, which emit no signal until they are activated by a reader at close range. As of October 2006, all U.S. passports will contain RFID chips.
Controversy revolves around the potential uses and abuses of RFID for human tracking, as distinct from the way the technology is actually used currently. Human RFID is being used in a very limited and voluntary way today, according to John Procter, spokesperson for VeriChip Corp., a vendor based in Delray Beach, Fla.
"VeriChip is the only company that offers FDA-approved, human implantable RFID. We're the only ones on the block," he says. The company offers a variety of systems that represent the state of the art today in human RFID.
A core product is a system called VeriMed for people with medical conditions. A tiny, passive RFID chip about the size of a grain of rice containing a 16-digit code that links to a medical file is injected into the recipient's arm. In a medical crisis, emergency staff can read and obtain the code that gives them access to the person's file. "VeriMed is a voluntary medical device offered to those who choose to adopt it. This system is not used for tracking – it is strictly for identification, and that's an important distinction," says Procter.
The company also offers an infant protection system called Hugs to prevent abductions. In this system, the baby is tagged at birth with an ankle bracelet containing an active RFID chip that can communicate with the hospital's network of RFID readers located in the maternity ward and other locations. If the baby is taken beyond permissible locations, an alert is immediately sent to notify hospital staff.
At present, the Hugs bracelet contains no capabilities that would allow authorities to track an abductor holding the baby, nor are there plans to add that, says Procter. "The system does not track the baby's movements. All the system can tell is if the RFID chip crossed an unauthorized threshold at a point in time or on a particular floor."
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