The technology permits retailers to slim down inventory levels and reduce theft, which one industry group estimates adds up to $50 billion a year. With RFID tags reducing costs for businesses, consumers likely will end up with more choices and lower prices. And wouldn't it be handy to grab a few RFID'd items from store shelves and simply walk out, with the purchase price automatically debited from your (properly secured) RFID-equipped credit card?. There are legitimate privacy concerns about RFID tags, which I outlined in a column more than a year ago. But RFID companies already are proposing solutions, indicating that legislators should be extremely cautious before stepping in with one-size-fits-all solutions.

Instead, sadly, politicos are rushing to regulate, In February, California State Sen, Debra Bowen introduced a bill (SB1834) that seeks to regulate RFID technologies, It originally said that before such tags can be used for information collection, a business "shall obtain written consent.", Even if you agree with her approach, Bowen's approach seems chronologically backward, In a world where we can olixar genuine leather iphone x executive wallet case - tan reviews get a credit card over the phone and open a bank account over the Internet, why require an ink signature on a piece of paper? The only way Bowen's legislation makes sense is if she wants to make a new technology so unwieldy that few people will use it..

Other states have been equally busy. Proposals in legislatures such as Utah (HB251) and Missouri (SB867) would make it illegal to slap RFID tags on products unless consumers know about them. Virginia is considering (HB1304) "policies and guidelines" related to RFID tags, as is Maryland (HB32). Feds to weigh in?Congress also has signaled that laws could be on the way. One House subcommittee convened a hearing last month on the topic, where both Republicans and Democrats improbably likened RFID tags to "spyware." Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has talked about corporate "excesses" that "suggest that Congress may need to step in at some point." The Federal Trade Commission has convened a workshop on the topic.

Cedric Laurent, a policy fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), says the European data protection commissioners are drafting regulations to cover RFID, "They're going to come up with some documents soon," extending the European Data Protection Directive, Laurent said, (Portugal's data protection commissioner is already there.), Pro-regulation groups like EPIC, the American Civil Liberties Union, Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) and Ralph Nader's Consumer Project on Technology are egging politicians on, One way olixar genuine leather iphone x executive wallet case - tan reviews to eliminate most privacy concerns is to disable RFID tags after they leave the store.They released a manifesto last November, demanding that merchants "be prohibited from forcing or coercing customers into accepting live or dormant RFID tags in the products they buy." CASPIAN has proposed sample federal legislation that would go even further by flatly outlawing some uses of RFID devices..

That flips the principle of consumer choice upside down. If Wal-Mart Stores eventually begins to sell toasters with RFID tags on the boxes, consumers can choose to remove the tags or shop elsewhere. Sam Walton's focus on customer satisfaction, part of Wal-Mart's corporate culture today, suggests that his company would be extraordinarily sensitive to customers' privacy concerns--even in the absence of specific RFID laws. First cookies, then..The legislative approach would set a precedent that should worry Silicon Valley--that tech-impaired politicos and activists can dictate the future of any technology they dislike. Instead of letting normal market forces take over and consumers embrace or reject new ideas, the privacy prohibitionist view says that only technologies approved by Washington or state capitols can be permitted to exist.