Brussels, 04/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - According to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx, additional legislative measures are needed to regulate the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips in consumer products and other new applications affecting private individuals. The EDPS opinion was published at the end of December on the European Commission's communication adopted in March 2007 regarding RFID in Europe (EUROPE 9387).
Although the EDPS welcomes the Commission's communication on RFID as it addresses the main issues arising from the deployment of RFID technology while taking account of privacy and data protection considerations, the EDPS considers legal measures should be adopted to accompany the current self-regulatory instruments. To begin with, the Commission believed it was appropriate to let the present framework take effect without having recourse to other measures. The EDPS, on the other hand, fears that methods currently implemented are rapidly becoming insufficient given the risks entailed by RFID when it comes to data protection and privacy.
Mr Hustinx calls on the Commission to examine the following recommendations: - the provision of clear guidance in close cooperation with relevant stakeholders on how to apply the current legal framework to the RFID environment; - the adoption of a Community legislation regulating the main issues of RFID usage in case the effective implementation of the existing legal framework fails; - such measures should notably lay down the opt-in principle at the point of sale as a precise and undeniable legal obligation; - and the identification of “best available techniques” which will play a decisive role in the early adoption of the privacy-by-design principle (integration of data protection principles from the moment of conception). Mr Hustinx said: “RFID systems could play a key role in the development of the European Information Society but the wide acceptance of RFID technologies should be facilitated by the benefits of consistent data protection safeguards. Self-regulation alone may not be enough to meet the challenge. Legal instruments may therefore be required to guarantee that the technical solutions to minimise the risks for data protection and privacy are in place”.
RFID tags are a new identification system based on markers that react to the radio frequencies of the various receivers. For example, they allow verification of passports, luggage, pharmaceutical products and even animals (microchips planted under the animal's skin, or in a product), identification of which is possible thanks to a receiver that captures the information contained therein. This new technology, which has a promising future, raises key questions at European level regarding protection of privacy. (I.L.)