RFID : RECOMMENDATION DUE OUT IN SPRING 2008.

A shopping centre equipped with a long-range sensor which sorts consumers by category A, B, C, D, etc and makes reports on the latest transactions through information transmitted by intelligent labels applied to the products: for the moment it is only a futuristic scenario which is circulating on the streaming video site YouTube.

Nonetheless, concern is increasing in Europe faced with the wave of labels with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) microchips. Why? Because this technology is capable to storing personal information. Till what point can companies and governments rummage through the citizens' private life?

To respond to these concerns, the European Commission is favouring the soft law', at least at first. It plans to publish a recommendation in spring 2008, therefore not legally binding, which should exclusively concern the safety of information and respect for privacy.

Now if stakeholders, gathered in the experts' group put in place by the Commission last June, have managed to reach an agreement on "practically all the points," there is still a stumbling block: the scheme to be retained for RFID when the customer in a retail outlet passes the point of sale. For consumer associations, the client must be able to choose if he wants RFID or not. Therefore, except on the consumer's express request, the European Consumers' Organisation is asking that labels are automatically deactivated at the point of sale (the so-called opt-in' scheme). An approach which could be very costly in large infrastructures. Manufacturers want consumers to have the label deactivated on their own initiative after going through the checkout (so-called opt-out' scheme).

The Commission will have to decide: does it want to come down on the side of the consumer by recommending the opt-in scheme, or preserve competitiveness, by backing the opt-out scheme associated with an awareness campaign? In this case, manufacturers will have to design labels which are easy to remove. The Commission will examine the two scenarios, in a well-argued manner. It is now a question of making a political choice'. It could launch an online public consultation on the different points of the recommendation in January while it aims to finalise the draft for spring.

RFIDS OF THE FUTURE

When she announced, in March 2007, the results of the public consultation that the EU executive had launched a year earlier to refine the Union's strategy on RFID, European Commissioner for Information...