July 03, 2006
Current RFID Privacy Concerns + Protecting Your Smartcards
Depending on your perspective, you may be happy to know that the US DHS (Department of Homeland Security) does not currently advocate the implantation of RFID chips into humans. Independent of this decision, Wisconsin and a small handful of other US states have recently passed bills into law prohibiting the compulsory implantation of RFID chips.
The bills, however, do not stop people from voluntarily having chips implanted, nor for people like the chairman of VeriChip - who is not himself implanted - from recommending that newborn babes and immigrant workers being microchipped, in the way that household pets have been for quite some time now.
Privacy concerns are a show-stopper for the widespread acceptance of RFID technology by the general public, and the issues have to be addressed. While there are some state and provincial governments releasing privacy guidelines, there still isn't a lot of obvious consensus, especially at the federal level across the world. However, a few large computer software and hardware corporations in the US have recently teamed up to issue a joint RFID privacy guideline, and suggestions for how consumers should be made aware of the technology and its uses.
Consumers appear to be the most concerned with having their smartcards - which are probably the most widely used form of RFID-enabled identification or payment - read by unauthorized reading devices. So there's still a lot of work to be done in the area of standards and protection of privacy.
From the hardware angle, Broadcom has recently developed a processor with secure RFID chip, and other companies are already using it in their biometric products. RFIDsec also has a privacy-protected RFID chip, which will be available in early 2007.
For now, those of you concerned about having your RFID smart cards read by lurking readers might consider Emvelope's solution. [found via Hasbrouck] It's simple, compact, and fits into your wallet. Their emvelope wallet holder creates a field effect known as a Faraday Cage, which blocks out certain radio frequencies.
Put your smartcard in your wallet, place the Emvelope behind the card, and close your wallet. That's it. You can find more info at this page. [Note: at the time of posting this article, I was unable to reach their website.]
There is also something known as TEMPEST, which is a US government codename for a means of "limiting electric or electomagnetic radiation emanations from electronic equipment". This could be useful to implement in airport check-in/ out buildings, where RFID tagging of passenger baggage is being checked for various projects.
The fact is, there are several means by which consumers' privacy can be protected from inadvertent or unauthorized use of RFID technology. It's a question of how consumers should be informed and whether governments and RFID tech vendors will step up and openly address the issues.
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