RFID and Free Market Forces

Filed in archive Privacy and Security , RFID Basics on May 25, 2004

Jim Harper of Web-tank Privacilla.org writes in an article at Tech Central Station that people needn't worry about privacy issues with RFID. He says free market forces will protect consumers from abuse.

I agree that free market forces will curb some of the more far-fetched abuses. However, they don't go far enough. Let me play devil's advocate for a moment:

• First, it's not so much the legitimate businesses you have to worry about -- it's all the shady characters out there ready to pounce upon data that a careless retailer or manufacturer leaves accessible and unprotected. The suggestion of an RFID jammer is not an acceptable answer to me, as a consumer. Is it supposed to be my responsibility to arm myself with an RFID jammer, just because items I buy may now be able to "announce" to the world what they are and where they are?


• Existing commercial forces and legal remedies aren't always enough protection. Being versed in the law, I know that U.S. tort law is not as slam dunk as the author suggests. I can't speak to other countries' laws, but I suspect they provide varying levels of protection. More importantly, as a consumer why should I have to file a lawsuit for protection in the first place?


• The third point I take some issue with is the way the author resorts to a circuitous argument, suggesting that consumers needn't raise concerns because consumers will force reasonable protections. Huh? Isn't one a prerequisite to the other?

I am a big believer in free markets and I agree with the author that to the extent possible free market forces should rein. But after you strip out the science fiction and the overhyping, there remain some very real privacy concerns that even the strongest RFID proponents, like me, feel uncomfortable about if left unaddressed.

Industry groups have to take the lead to address these privacy concerns. The worst thing that can happen is to wave them away as if they are unimportant or will somehow resolve themselves.