Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): Is There a Risk for Privacy

Abstract

The paper compares the legal situation of RFID in New Zealand, Germany and the United States. New Zealand and Germany have comprehensive privacy laws that are applicable to RFID. Those laws provide a generally high standard of privacy although RFID is not regulated explicitly. In the United States there is no such general privacy law and the Constitution is the only law that provides for privacy at federal level. However, there is legislation in some states of the United States that regulates RFID explicitly. The conclusion of the paper shows that general privacy protection is preferable compared with specific regulation, because such specific regulation may interfere with the development of RFID technology. The paper also describes briefly recommendations of the European Commission and the OECD on RFID. Both recommendations suggest self-regulation by the economy instead of governmental regulation in order to support the further development of RFID technology.