By John Leyden for The Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
The study, based on a six-month consultation exercise by
Brussels, highlighted the need to reassure the public that use of
the technology would not herald large-scale surveillance, EU
commissioner Viviane Reding said.
The Information Society Commissioner said the study demonstrated
the need for legislation to guard against possible abuse of the
technology. Many survey respondents asked for technical safeguards
so tags could be turned off by default.
The consultation, which solicited a record number of responses,
also illustrated a public desire to have a say on how information
stored on RFID tags was updated and which organisations were
granted access to potentially sensitive data.
Only 15 per cent of the 2,190 organisations and individuals who
responded to the survey thought that industry self-regulation and
market dynamics could be trusted to establish adequate safeguards.
More than half (55 per cent) wanted government regulations designed
to curb possible abuse of the technology.
"The large majority are willing to be convinced that RFID can
bring benefits but they want to be reassured that it will not
compromise their privacy," Commissioner Reding said, the BBC
reports.
"This is the deal that we have to strike if we want RFID to be
accepted and widely taken up."
"The consultation shows that people are mainly afraid of losing
control, of not being able to choose when and how they are exposed
to risks," she added.
Commissioner Reding made her comments during a conference in
Brussels to mark the end of the EU's consultation exercise.
RFID tags, tiny microchips that identify their subject, are
increasingly being used as an alternative to bar codes as a way of
monitoring goods moving along supply chains. More controversially,
the technology is also making its way onto individual items for
sale in supermarkets and into government issued identity documents,
including passports.
© The Register
2006
