Wisconsin Legislators Introduce New Bill to Restrict RFID
This bill falls under the Privacy Related - Extreme Privacy Bills type state legislation relating to RFID as per the breakdown previously mentioned in this blog.
This bill represents uninformed privacy legislation for several reasons. First of all, I have heard no official talk or even speculation of embedding RFID chips in US currency. It's hard to imagine that the cost-benefit of adding RFID to currency makes sense at the current prices and capabilities of the technology. Put this in the camp of legislation creating a solution to a problem that doesn't remotely exist yet.
It's bad enough to have Wisconsin AB 290 already on the books, legally ensuring that Wisconsin employers can't perform involuntary surgery on their employees in order to track them. The RFID industry needs to continue to educate policymakers and constituents on the reality of the technology. Evidently, there is still work to be done.
It's likely true that there's no official talk of embedded RFID into currency, but that doesn't mean the speculation isn't there. I've heard of speculation since before 2005. I'm actually surprised to find you're against AB 290. Maybe I've misread your blog to date, as I actually thought you'd be for it. The point, as I've interpreted it, is that employers can't force chip implants. As a lawyer, you must be aware that executives have ways to make "involuntary" feel like voluntary and getting away with it. This law protects citizens from such future behaviour. There is absolutely no solid justification for implants.
I thought AB290 was silly and unnecessary. An employer already can't force an employee to undergo any surgery, let alone implanting a microchip. Just because someone can speculate about how something can be put to bad use doesn't mean it requires a new law to prevent it. We don't have laws against murder that require a separate statute for every conceivable way someone could be killed. To me, the fact that the legislature feels compelled to pass legislation banning the forced implantation of RFID chips indicates that the industry is in real danger of being broadly perceived as a menace rather than a benefit to society.
Banning RFID chips in money seems equally silly and premature. What if technology allows you to keep better track of how you spend your own currency, avoid counterfeits, and reduce the risk of theft -- without allowing the "Big Brother" scenario of government tracking all your purchases. That might be a good idea -- but we'd never know, because it was banned before it could be examined. Again, why not pass a law that says that those who travel back in time can't kill someone in the past to avoid their ancenstors from being born. "Just because they're not doing it yet, doesn't mean they won't try -- let's be proactive..."
