EC elects not to meddle with RFID

Privacy concerns over radio tagging chips do not merit new legislation, according to the European Commission

The European Commission has decided it will not introduce data privacy legislation to govern the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for the moment, but will adjust current rules to protect EU citizens and trust market forces to sort out technical issues and interoperability.

EC information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding has spent a year consulting governments, industry groups and EU citizens about concerns that increased usage of RFID tags would compromise individual data privacy, but has concluded that no regulation is required.

“We must not over regulate RFID -we must provide the industry with the means and legal certainty to go for it, and make the industry aware of the fact that the internet of things has to become an internet for people. It should be the choice of the consumer to deactivate the chip,” she said yesterday. “We have to clarify how the EU ePrivacy Directive is utilised in order to be applied to the RFID world. Only once this is done, probably by the end of 2008, will we see whether it is necessary to take legislative steps or not.”

Instead of legislating, the EU will create an RFID stakeholder group, with industry and data protection people, consumers and scientists, and leave this group to provide solutions that will go into recommendations on how to handle data privacy and smart radio tags.

Reding believes the size of the market opportunity will encourage tag makers and those using the tags to collaborate closely on frequency standardisation and chip design. The EU estimates that the RFID industry is worth €500m today, but will generate a minimum of €7bn or more within 10 years.