Some of the opponents in the debate over the potential privacy
abuses of identification and tracking systems using tiny radio tags
have come together to draft best-practices guidelines that are to be
released today at a technology trade show in Las Vegas.
Radio tagging technology, called RFID
for radio frequency identification, is already widely used in wireless
toll collection systems and to control access to buildings, track
livestock and manage industrial assets. It is also rapidly spreading
into libraries, hospitals and systems that track consumer goods through
the retail supply chain. Radio tags, which are based on microchips,
carry more information than bar codes, and large numbers of them can be
scanned at the same time. Among other things, the guidelines
say that consumers should be notified when goods have radio tags, which
can be invisibly buried in labels, packaging or the goods themselves.
The guidelines also say that it should be clear to consumers how to
disable disposable forms of the tags and that it should be easy to do
so once items with such tags have been purchased. Businesses are called
on to notify consumers about how information gathered from the tags
will be used. The chips are being used on removable hang tags in "a few select men's
products" in the core Levi's apparel brand in one U.S. retail store,
which has asked that it not be named until it chooses to identify
itself, said Jeffrey Beckman, director of worldwide and U.S.
communications for Levi Strauss.
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