RFID Law Blog

The EU is calling for “meaningful discussion” considering its draft legislation on how to regulate RFID. The pending text can be found here, and cites past forum discussions and the EU’s commitment to “privacy, data protection and security.”

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Dan Caprio, Chair of the RFID Industry Consortium, testified last week before the European Commission RFID Expert Group.  As has been reported on this blogsite, the EU is considering regulations on RFID related to data privacy and security - regulations that would affect everyone in the industry: 

• EU Official Urges RFID Industry to "Create Trust" In the Technology
• EU shows common sense...so far
• European Union Commissioner Reding Proposes For a Balanced and Thoughtful Approach to RFID
• EU Launches R&D Program for RFID. 

Dan reiterated the benefits of RFID technology in many areas (including food safety/recall, genuine products (plane parts), preventing counterfeit drugs, sustainable consumption, transport, security, logistics and stock control) while noting the "unintended consequences from well intentioned, but poorly crafted" regulation.

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Robert Cresanti, Undersecretary for technology at the US Department of Commerce, just returned from a trip to South Korea and China, where he met with his counterparts in the governments there and talked, among other things, about their approach to regulating RFID. Here's a recent interview from Government Computer News.

Cresanti is one of our featured speakers at the RFIDJournal Pre-Conference in Orlando next week.

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We had a very helpful discussion over lunch yesterday led by Gerald Santucci and Hana Pechackova, both of the European Commission. Santucci oversees RFID and other IT issues at the Commission and Pechackova is part of the Justice, Liberty, and Security branch of the EC. Dan Caprio, who organized the program, introduced our guests and explained his experiences working with Santucci while Dan was still at the US Department of Commerce.

Santucci said that the EU's decision to back off from regulating RFID is essentially a conditional one. The Commission is giving the technology the next few years to mature but simultaneously putting the RFID industry at work to demonstrate to EU citizens that RFID is safe, secure, and privacy-respecting.

He also urged consistency in messages from the EU and the US. If people hear different things from different places, it will be a lose-lose situation. Indeed, RFID faces "a problem of trust" and narrowing what people hear about the technology will help to build this trust, "We might lose in the end if we can't find the right way to create trust."

More details on the lunch can be found here. 

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Undersecretary for Technology Administration, Robert Cresanti recently returned from a trip to the EU, where he met with RFID industry officials. At the Conference in Hannover, he praised European Commissioner for Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding -- his EU counterpart -- for giving the industry more time to grow and mature before imposing regulations.  He also talked about the need for interoperability internationally.

It is comforting to know that there are groups in the EU that understand the RFID industry and acknowledge that it is going to take time for the industry to iron out its kinks. It is clear that RFID technology is developing rapidly and it is too early to regulate; it would appear that we need some of those cool heads to work with consumer groups in this country so that common ground can be made on the issue of regulation.

Article sourced from National Journal's Tech Daily

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This guest blog entry on the EU Announcement last week on RFID has been written by Dan Caprio, Former Department of Commerce Chief Privacy Officer and the newest addition to the MLA Blog contribution team:

European Union Commissioner Reding Proposes For a Balanced and Thoughtful Approach to RFID

Following extensive and wide ranging consultations in 2006, Commissioner Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media announced a policy devoid of regulating RFID instead opting for the creation of an RFID stakeholder group including consumer groups; industry; national and European authorities including EU Data Protection Authorities to further consider the opportunities and challenges of RFID in Europe.

Over the next two years, the Commission will continue to analyze issues related to spectrum, research and development, standards, privacy and security, intellectual property and the openness, interoperability, and neutrality of RFID databases defined by the Commission as the “Internet of Things.”

On privacy and security and what is described as “the Internet of Things” the Commission will continue to consider what steps might be taken by the end of this year related to the European Data Directive, the EU ePRIVACY Directive and the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party. At the end of 2008, the Commission will publish a formal communication with policy options including privacy and security.

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Last month in Brussels, the European Union launched a three-year RFID research and development inititiative known as the BRIDGE project (Building Radio frequency IDentification solutions for the Global Environment). The BRIDGE project is being supported with € 7.5 million in funding from the EU's Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6) and will be coordinated by GS1, the global data standards body that currently regulates bar codes. The organization will be made up of 31 members including research labs, manufacturers, retailers, and small businesses. The goal of the project is to increase competitiveness of European companies by building on a standardized RFID technology and contributing to the development of the European RFID industry.

Check out the press release from July 12, 2006.

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