RFID is Inevitable But Dicey
Broad enterprise adoption of RFID is inevitable -- but its potential won't be reached if the industry doesn't handle privacy issues.
In a report released on Thursday, IT research firm Burton Group said that RFID has promise for keyless access to buildings, gates and autos; cashless payments; tracking of high-value goods; highway toll collection; and identifying pets.
But clumsy implementations and bad communication have tainted early implementations of radio frequency identification (RFID), the automatic, contactless identification technology, report author Gerry Gebel warned.
Clandestine tests of RFID in stores riled privacy advocates, who asked Congress to legislate consumer protections. In April 2004,the California Senate passed a bill setting standards for the use of the technology in libraries and stores.
RFID tags emit a unique identifying code when they come within distance of a reader; the reader passes the code back to a database that connects to enterprise applications and systems. Burton Group includes contactless smart cards, which add RFID to typical smart card features, in the category.
