RFID Can Fight Back

Filed in archive Tags and Readers on April 4, 2006

Certainly the consumer protests over the use of RFID tags have tarnished its image that would affect its acceptance. The damage has already been done and it does not matter whether the protests were based on an accurate understanding of RFID technology or not. Even if this perception remains in the memory of the public, it would at the very least suffer less than optimal take-up in the marketplace.

We must keep one thing in mind that when it comes to a new technology, the perception created tends to become the reality and since the consumer perspective was not kept in mind while developing the commercial use of RFID it resulted in dissent from their side. This situation could have been totally avoided had these things been given a thought from the start itself.

Consumers are not only worried about their security but also about their privacy. We had seen that protests resulted because of the Caspian campaign against Gillette's trial of tags on razor blade packs and against stores that issued tagged loyalty cards. When this controversy arose, businesses planning to use this technology were slow to respond.

I believe that still not much damage has been done and RFID can bounce back by taking consumers into confidence and rebuilding their trust by keeping their opinion in mind.