EU lays out plans for the "internet of things"

What will you do when your yoghurt pot starts talking to you? Mass RFID deployment on consumer products prompts EU to prepare legislation

EU aims to head off RFID fears

The European Commission has announced plans for Europe to play a leading part in developing and managing interconnected networks formed from everyday objects with radio frequency identity (RFID) tags embedded in them - the so-called "internet of things".

The Commission has launched a 14-point action plan to address the issues raised from such widespread interconnectivity.

"New examples of applications that connect objects to the internet and each other are created [everyday]: from cars connected to traffic lights that fight congestion, to home appliances connected to smart power grids and energy metering that allows people to be aware of their electricity consumption," said EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding.

The EC expects there will be a progressive connection of a variety of physical objects, and not just computers – creating the ‘internet of things’. These could be everyday items such as food packaging that records the temperature along its supply chain, or different prescription drugs that warn patients of a possible incompatibility.

To meet the challenges raised by such interconnected objects, the EU's action plan aims to help "Europeans benefit from this evolution and at the same time address the challenges it raises such as privacy, security and the protection of personal data," according to the Commission.

The plan's major concerns are related to governance, privacy, data protection and the emerging risks which could potentially surface as new RFID technology is rolled out into ever-more consumers devices and products.

European statistics body Eurostat will start publishing RFID usage statistics in December, and the Commission will gather a representative set of European stakeholders to monitor the evolution of the "internet of things".

But one problem which could stymie widespread RFID use is the lack of an IPv6 rollout, which would be needed to cater for addressing many millions of objects.

"[IPv6] sets the conditions for RFID's widespread take-up, allowing objects such as household items to have their own internet protocol addresses to connect to other devices," said the Commission.