Europe Protects Against RFID Abuses

InformationWeek has published this paper Privacy Laws: Europe Protects Against RFID Abuses by Laurie Sullivan.


Under European law (European Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC), any company that uses RFID must notify the consumer the tag is on the product and provide details on how to discard the tag and access the information held on it.

More than half of 2,000 European consumers who participated in a recent online survey say they're concerned about privacy with regards to RFID. But the survey, conducted by Capgemini and ORC International, a global research unit of Opinion Research Corp., also found that respondents are more likely to buy RFID-tagged products if there are laws protecting their privacy. The ability to disable RFID tags at the store after purchase, a customer opt-in/opt-out choice regarding information collected, and clear labels that state the tag is RFID enabled follow in importance.