European Commission launches new industry guidelines on RFID privacy

The European Commission, along with industry and data protection watchdogs, have signed a voluntary agreement to establish a framework for RFID applications to ensure that new tags pass strict privacy assessments before they are put on the market.

Around one billion RFID tags are currently in circulation in Europe, but this number will jump by a whopping 2.8 billion globally this year, according to the European Commission.

RFID tags can improve product reliability, supply chain management and even energy efficiency, but also raise privacy, security and data protection risks, the Commission added.

The Privacy and Data Protection Impact Assessment Framework for RFID Applications aims to ensure that consumer privacy is considered before bringing such tags to market.

Vendors will be forced to carry out a rigorous assessment of any privacy risks, and address them before any new smart tag application is released.

Biometric, health and identity data was flagged as of particular importance in this regard.

"I warmly welcome today's milestone agreement to put consumers' privacy at the centre of smart tag technology, and to make sure privacy concerns are addressed before products are placed on the market," said Digital Agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes.

"I'm pleased that industry is working with consumers, privacy watchdogs and others to address legitimate concerns over data privacy and security related to the use of these smart tags."