One of privacy advocates‘ prime suspects have long been RFID systems, enabling data to be transmitted via a portable device, called a tag, to an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a particular application. RFID, which started as a benign replacement of the barcode, allowing Wallmart to perfect its inventory control process, is increasingly appearing in privacy-compromising applications. Last week, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff defended national ID cards, established by a federal law called the Real ID Act in May 2005, as vital for security and consistent with privacy rights. Among other concerns, national ID cards may carry RFID tags, despite a recent DHS advisory committee report advising against using RFID for tracking humans. More prosaic, a report by researchers at the University of Washington warns against surreptitious surveillance of joggers by their Nike+iPod Sport Kit, which consists of an RFID chip. The EU Article 29 Working Party has last year warned against the dangers of RFID in an official report. The bigger problem lurking behind RFID is that of privacy in an age of ubiquitous computing, where every object, not only cellphone but also table or spoon, is a computer.
