STATES PREPARED TO PASS RFID BILLS

“There are at least 7 or 8 states entertaining… legislation,” Barrios said: “This is becoming a very timely issue. It is at the industry’s own peril that folks ignore what’s going on in the policy sphere.” He said that while he didn’t want to “stifle” technology, he wanted to protect consumer privacy. Barrios told us some states inevitably will pass legislation. “There’s absolutely going to need to be legislation in Massachusetts,” he said: “It’s what is the content of the legislation, what it looks like, how modest, how broad should it be -- that’s the focus of what I'm looking at.”

Barrios said in some meetings manufacturers have asked him and other lawmakers not to introduce legislation. “That’s the worst thing possible for RFID because of some of the very serious issues that are in many ways unanticipated,” he said. “Retailers… want some guidance, practical guidance, which does not kill the technology.”

Meanwhile, the ITAA announced Tues. that it had started a committee to explore RFID issues. Among the goals of the group are developing industry best practices on RFID, conducting research and helping “build the marketplace” for RFID products, ITAA said.

“It’s a very exciting technology and we think there’s a real upside potential here for IT customers and companies,” ITAA Senior Vp Bob Cohen said: “The committee is really going to be focused on market development, helping companies understand what the needs of the marketplace are, understand some of the technology challenges such as standards, the whole issue of integrating this new technology, how do you provide the software and the data storage capabilities.”

ITAA Pres. Harris Miller said the debate must start now on the future of RFID. “Why the public policy focus [if] it really isn’t yet a major subject of legislation or of hearings?” he asked: “The short answer is we need to get out on top of this, out ahead of this debate, and make sure that the voters and obviously their elected representatives… and also the international community really understand these issues.” Miller said “the wrong legislation, however well intentioned, can stop the technology dead in its tracks. We have to make sure we have an informed debate.”

Several developments over the past 18 months are focusing attention on RFID. Two private sector initiatives, involving Benetton and Wal-Mart, got the most mentions at the conference. Italian garment maker Benetton made headlines in 2003 when it said it would add tiny chips to clothing when it was being made that would help track garments to the point of sale. Potentially the chips could be used for other purposes after sale, for example, to identify repeat customers and offer them special deals when they return to a retail outlet.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart announced last year it will require its top 100 suppliers to put RFID on shipping crates and pallets by Jan. 2005. The Dept. of Defense is moving toward requiring that vendors use RFID as a condition of doing business. The Army already has a well developed tracking system using RFID.

Bob Atkinson of the Progressive Policy Institute said the debate so far has provided “more heat than light” and common sense must prevail. “There are an awful lot of privacy advocates out there who are making claims about the totalitarian and Big Brother and Orwellian implications of RFID,” he said: “In reality we don’t know very much about how these technologies are going to be rolled out.”