AIM Global tackles RFID and privacy

AIM Global, the trade association for the automatic identification and mobility industry, recently participated in the Congressional Internet Caucus RFID Demonstration in Washington, DC with the purpose of educating U.S. government officials about the issues surrounding RFID and privacy.
 
Although RFID has gained a great deal of media attention within the retail supply chain community, there are many other types of RFID systems that can provide benefits, including:
        Improve homeland security;
        Increase the integrity of pharmaceutical and food supply chains
        Enhance the efficiencies of manufacturing logistics.
 
AIM's RFID Experts Group (REG) developed a draft policy statement on privacy issues for presentation to a U.S. Congressional Caucus looking into privacy concerns.  This draft policy recognized individuals' rights and outlined ways in which RFID technology can be used while helping ensure individuals' privacy.  This document was presented to the U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus on March 9, 2005.  The full draft statement covering a number of topics is available at: https://www.aimglobal.org/estore/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=306
 As an extension of the draft policy, the REG also submitted comments on a draft European Union (EU) document on privacy concerns.  The REG offered its advice on technical solutions to privacy concerns and offered its suggestions on how data should be handled in company databases.  The comments were submitted to the EU in a recent communiqu entitled “Comments on EC Working Document 10107/05/EN WP 105,” through AIM's European, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) regional center in Brussels, Belgium.
The REG noted that RFID manufacturers can only offer technical solutions to consumer privacy issues but, as recent events have demonstrated, security of corporate databases containing personally-identifiable data must also be secure.