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June 10, 2006
California lawmaker introduces bill to ENCOURAGE use of RFID
The RFID industry, not content to send out paid lobbyists to destroy every RFID labeling bill that comes along, is now apparently encouraging government representatives to promote RFID as a privacy enhancing technology. These guys have no shame.
Here's how Contactless News breathlessly reports the development:
A new "common sense" RFID bill that encourages the use of RFID technology in state government IDs, while addressing privacy concerns of citizens and organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, is gaining traction in California.The bill, AB 2561, co-sponsored by Silicon Valley State Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, represents a more sensible approach to privacy and remotely readable identification cards than previously proposed bill, says the American Electronics Association (AeA), a technology advocacy membership organization, and co-sponsor of the legislation....
The hope, from the AeA's perspective, is that the new Torrico bill will help foster consumer acceptance of RFID technology, says Ms. Gould. So far, more than one-dozen states have attempted to pass legislation either limiting or prohibiting the use of RFID. Much of the legislation - and consumer support for such legislation - is based on false or exaggerated propaganda, members of the AeA contend.
While privacy is a serious issue, many consumers are unaware of the power of RFID to actually protect privacy - not thwart it, says Ms. Gould.
This reminds me of the sort of propaganda we used to hear from the nuclear power industry. "Nuclear power is CLEAN energy! It's GOOD for the environment!" (Never mind those tons of glowing nuclear waste we have to bury in the desert...that's irrelevant.)
I had fun poking around to see who funds the illustrious assemblyman Alberto Torrico. Not surprisingly, I found his coffers contain funds from such infamous RFID players as Cingular Wireless (whose parent company, Bell South, wants to pick through your garbage at the dump to glean marketing data about your household), Hewlett Packard (the main company deploying item-level RFID on consumer products today), Boeing (who got AIM Global to develop the "Aim RFID Mark"), Bank of America (with a patent out for billboards that ID you through your spychipped belongings as you walk past), Intel (who wants to rig your medicine cabinet with RFID readers to monitor your use of tagged prescripotion drugs), and Target (one of the largest retailers with a major RFID initiative underway).
Can somebody in Fremont, Milpitas, or Castro Valley send Mr. Torrico a polite note abuot this? The "false or exaggerated propaganda" part really undermines the AEA's commitment to protecting privacy. Torrico should know who he's gotten into bed with. Here's Torrico's district map and contact information.
- Katherine Albrecht
Posted by Katherine Albrecht at June 10, 2006 9:31 PM
Comments
Dear Mr. Torrico: I adamantly OPPOSE the RFID technology that you and a number of corporations are promoting against the citizens of California. We will be living in a de facto police state if we allow the legislation that you are sponsoring to be enacted. I protest and oppose it and your efforts on behalf of these corporations. A.M.
Posted by: A. McKeon at June 11, 2006 11:59 PM
Good site.
Posted by: rfid at July 22, 2006 8:22 PM
Hello Katherine,
See how you just leak your name out all over the net? All your information can be found out without the help of rfid just with your name so you know, so much for privacy. It's not like rfid tags are watching you undress...If you're being "tracked" by rfid supposedly then you should have nothing to worry about if you are not breaking any law. What makes you expect people will find what you claim about rfid to be true? Oh my god, because of Rfid...we're all going to die! *insert sarcasm here* get a grip. It's just another technology that is 50% Bad and 50% Good.
Posted by: Garrett Sawyer at December 3, 2006 1:02 AM