US privacy campaigners attack RFID

RFID chips proposed for use in tyre identification and TPMS are coming under attack in the USA as an invasion of privacy, as campaigners say that the information recorded can be collected and used to monitor the car driver’s activities. As the price of RFID chips drops, tagging individual items will become the norm. According to Katherine Albrecht of the New Hampshire-based privacy rights group Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, tagging individual items “only becomes helpful if you want to register individual items to individuals.

” She contends that the RFID chips Michelin is already embedding in its tires, to help in product recall cases, someday could be used to track people as they drive past chip readers on highways or in parking lots. In California, a state senate subcommittee in August held the first-ever public hearing on RFID and privacy, and more hearings are planned for later this fall. Legislation is expected to be introduced early next year that could influence policies in other states.