RFID
Also known as: radio-frequency identification
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that allows objects to be identified and tracked wirelessly. To do this, the object is equipped with a special chip that has electronically stored data. The data on the chip can be read using electromagnetic fields.
RFID tags
Because RFID chips need not be larger than a grain of rice, objects can be invisibly tagged with an RFID tag. It also does not need to be visible to read the information on the chip.
The benefits make RFID a potential successor to the bar code. Products no longer need to be physically scanned to track them. This has many advantages for inventory tracking, package tracking, and item checkout. RFID chips are also being injected into pets to identify them.
Privacy concerns
Because items such as clothing and other possessions, as well as animals and people, can be invisibly tagged with a chip, the rise of RFID technology raises serious privacy concerns.
RFID makes it very easy for retail businesses to track their customers' behavior. Many stores already use it to deter shoplifting. However, the same technology can also be used to record the behavior of a store's visitors. Not only by tagging items, but also by equipping loyalty cards with chips. As long as a customer has their wallet with them, every visit a customer makes to the store can be recorded. By placing RFID readers in several places in the store, walking behavior can be analyzed in addition to visit duration.
RFID chips can basically be read by anyone. To protect sensitive data, the stored data can be encrypted. That this is no easy task was demonstrated by the fact that in several European countries the encryption of RFID data in passports was cracked within days.
That RFID devices are available to anyone at low cost makes them a potentially interesting medium for criminals for identity fraud, for example. At the same time, RFID technology is also being used to combat fraud. For example, adding personal data, a photograph and fingerprints in digital form to passports and identity cards. Here, the presence of an RFID chip and the accuracy of the stored data is one of the authenticity features present.
Protection against RFID
The risks of this technology, including privacy concerns, call for protective regulation from the government. Such regulation is beginning to take off in a piecemeal fashion in several countries.
In addition, there are several ways to protect yourself from parties who misuse RFID. For example, devices have been developed that interfere with RFID signals, and there is speculation as to whether certain metals, such as aluminum, can block the radio waves. An RFID tag could also be disabled in a microwave oven, although its microwaves could also be harmful to the object in question itself.
In theory, each RFID chip could be equipped with an electronic "switch" that would allow the tag to be remotely disabled. Similar to how item security is deactivated during checkout at the cash register.
