California politico wants to regulate RFID tags [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

This follows a related manifesto a few months ago from the pro-regulatory 
wing of the privacy community (CASPIAN, ACLU, EFF, EPIC, etc.):
> http://www.rfidprivacy.org/papers/givens_paper.htm
> Individuals have a right to know when products or items in the retail 
> environment contain RFID tags or readers. They also have the right to know 
> the technical specifications of those devices. Labeling must be clearly 
> displayed and easily understood.  Any tag reading that occurs in the 
> retail environment must be transparent to all parties. There should be no 
> tag-reading in secret.

---

Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 15:12:17 -0800
To: Dave Farber:;, Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>,
        State and Local Freedom of Information Issues 
<FOI-L () LISTSERV SYR EDU>,
        calfoilist () listlink berkeley edu
From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
Subject: Re: Bowen Proposes First-in-Nation RFID Standards

A California state Senator has proposed some privacy requirements for the 
use of RFID tags.  These tiny tags are being rapidly deployed by more and 
more retailers to [covertly] track each individual product that anyone 
purchases or otherwise uses.

(Such RFID tagging systems have also been proposed for various possible 
uses by government agencies.)

[Note:  Sen. Bowen is also the person who, as an upstart freshman member of 
California legislature's lower house -- the State Assembly -- introduced 
the bill (AB1624) that ultimately made Calif the first state in the nation 
to open all of its already-computerized public legislative records to free 
online access via the Internet ... legislation that was later copied by 
numerous other states (as can be seen by their duplication of some unusual 
phrasing used in AB1624 to describe the then-"unknown" Internet).  She 
later went on to fight for filing required campaign-finance disclosures in 
computerized form and placing them on the net, as well as numerous other 
open-government, open-records and personal-privacy protection legislation.]

--jim
Jim Warren; jwarren () well com, public-policy advocate & technology writer
345 Swett, Woodside CA 94062; 650-851-7075; fax/off due to spam-glut

[self-inflating puffery: InfoWorld founder; Dr.Dobb's Journal first editor;
Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Cal.James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award;
Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (1992, its first year);
Playboy Foundation Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award (1994);
founded the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conferences; blah blah blah]



>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>CONTACT: Jennie Bretschneider
>February 24, 2003
>(916) 445-5953
>
>WHO'S WATCHING & TRACKING WHAT YOU BUY?
>BOWEN PROPOSES STANDARDS FOR USE OF RFID TECHNOLOGY
>
>SACRAMENTO - Proposing first-in-the-nation privacy standards for the use of
>Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID), Senator Debra Bowen
>(D-Redondo Beach) introduced SB 1834 at the State Capitol.
>
>"The privacy impact of letting manufacturers and stores put RFID chips in
>the clothes, groceries, and everything else you buy is enormous," said
>Bowen.  "There's no reason to let RFID sneak up on us when we have the
>ability to put some privacy protections in place before the genie's out of
>the bottle."
>
>Retailers and manufacturers hope to save millions of dollars by automating
>the retail supply chain with RFID tracking systems, but privacy advocates
>fear RFID will become as omnipresent as video surveillance and give
>marketers another method of tracking people's whereabouts, interests, and
>habits.  SB 1834 requires any business or state government agency using an
>RFID system that can track products and people to:
>
>*      Tell people they're using an RFID system that can track and collect
>information about them.
>*      Get express consent before tracking and collecting information.
>*      Detach or destroy RFID tags that are attached to a product offered
>for sale before the customer leaves the store.
>
>"It really comes down to three basic principles," continued Bowen.  "First,
>you have a right to know when and where RFID technology is being used.
>Second, anyone using RFID should get your consent before they collect
>information about you.  Third, the 'default' should be that RFID tags on
>products get removed or destroyed when you walk out the door, which takes
>care of many of the privacy concerns - not the least of which is the fear
>that as you walk through the mall, everything you're wearing and carrying
>could one day be identified as you walk by RFID readers."
>
>Some of the latest developments on RFID are:
>
>*      Wal-Mart has announced plans to require its top 100 goods suppliers
>to tag shipping cases and pallets with RFID technology by 2005 and to
>require the rest of its suppliers to start using RFID tags by 2006.
>*
>*      Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble have tested RFID tags on Max Factor
>Lipfinity lipstick sold at the Wal-Mart store in Arrow, Oklahoma.  Store
>shelves equipped with Webcams allowed Procter & Gamble researchers in
>Cincinnati, Ohio, to watch customers as they picked up and looked at the
>lipsticks.
>*
>*      The San Francisco Public Library Commission has approved plans to
>start tagging library books with RFID chips by 2005-06.  Questions have been
>raised about whether the technology will give anyone with an RFID reader,
>including homeland security agencies and businesses, the ability to track
>and identify people and the library books they're carrying.
>
>Bowen chairs the Senate Subcommittee on New Technologies, which held two
>hearings on RFID technology and privacy (August 18, 2003, and November 20,
>2003).  The Uniform Code Council and the Grocery Manufacturers of America
>(GMA) testified at the hearing on retail and manufacturing industry plans
>for using RFID over the  next decade.
>
>For more information (transcripts, witness testimony, backgrounder, etc.) on
>the RFID hearings held in the Subcommittee on New Technologies hearings on
>RFID technology go to:
>
>http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/COMMITTEE/STANDING/ENERGY/_home/08-18-03age
>nda.htm
>http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/COMMITTEE/STANDING/ENERGY/_home/11-20-03age
>nda.htm
>
>SB 1834 will be assigned to a Senate policy committee in the coming weeks.
>
># # #

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