Information Week has a good article on how companies are starting to think about RFID and privacy. It makes a couple points that are right but unoriginal-- item-level tagging is still a few years away, but it's not too early to start implementing designs and policies to deal with the privacy issues; that lots of other technologies have traded a measure of privacy for some gain (e.g., a cheaper price, faster service), with little complaint-- and one that is new and very smart: that there's going to be very strong interdependence among companies when it comes to respecting privacy.
Sandy Hughes, global privacy officer for consumer-products manufacturer Procter & Gamble Co., heads a newly formed subcommittee at RFID industry group EPCglobal, called the Chief Privacy Officer Forum. "One thing that's really important with this technology is the reliance that retailers and manufacturers have in this together," she says. "So it's not something where we can just say for P&G, here's our privacy program, so everybody implement it the way we say. Since it's supply chain, we're all dependent on each other on how we implement it."
This strikes me as a significant point. In a sense, you can think of company interests on RFID and privacy as following a prisoner's dilemma: each company can choose being behaving well (e.g. working with others on agreed-upon standards for consumer privacy) for long-term gain, or misbehaving (e.g. collecting information) for short-term gain. However, thinking short-term will hurt everyone over the long term, and cheaters in particular. If true, this could work for consumers: companies that are tempted to misbehave may be effectively reined in by fear of Wal-Mart and DOD when moral persuasion fails.
[via RFID News]
For the past 12 years, Gordon Cook has written about every aspect of the commercial Internet. Detailed interviews with the leaders of the field have given him a body of knowledge of unique breadth and depth. Gordon has used that broad knowledge to develop a complete analysis of the commercial, political, economic, system and technical issues surrounding the broad introduction of RFID technology into the Global Economy.
His research has resulted in an exhaustive examination of the technology, architecture, and business strategy of RFID, in inventory management and, much more importantly, in the supply chain. He examines the Auto-ID, EPCglobal VeriSign Alliance to create "wireless" bar codes. He explains why this will have little impact unless and until it is well integrated into a wide range of corporate ERP systems. He describes why some companies that use web services, RosettaNet and appropriate supply chain software don't have any ROI yet for using RFID. Finally he looks in great detail at a very innovative and comprehensive service grid approach where goods may be tracked with mobile agent software from manufacture to point of sale.
An extract from the report and the full contents list can be found on my web site - RFID Exchange.
Thanks
Steve Heap
RFID Exchange
www.rfidexchange.com
Posted by: Steve H | March 25, 2004 at 06:03 PM