Citation[]
FTC Staff Report, Radio Frequency IDentification: Applications and Implications for Consumers (Mar. 2005) (full-text).
Overview[]
This staff report summarizes the discussion at a public workshop entitled "Radio Frequency Identification: Applications and Implications for Consumers" held by the FTC on June 21, 2004. It offers some preliminary recommendations for addressing the privacy concerns raised by some participants.
The FTC staff concludes:
- Industry initiatives can play an important role in addressing privacy concerns raised by certain RFID applications. The goal of such programs should be transparency.
- Any industry self-regulatory program should include meaningful accountability provisions to help ensure compliance.
- Many of the potential privacy issues associated with RFID are inextricably linked to database security. As in other contexts in which personal information is collected from consumers, a company that uses RFID to collect such information must implement reasonable and appropriate measures to protect that data.
- Consumer education is a vital part of protecting consumer privacy. Industry members, privacy advocates, and government should develop education tools that inform consumers about RFID technology, how they can expect to encounter it, and what choices they have with respect to its usage in particular situations.