Legislators in California are toning down a bill which would have imposed strict restrictions on the use of RFID tracking technology by state and local government and other public agencies. Critics have long worried that RFID technology poses an Orwellian threat to privacy, giving authorities the ability to track the movements and actions of people who have the chips installed.
The Identity Information Act of 2005 would have banned state and municipal governments from implanting RFID chips into identification documentation, a stipulation which could have caused serious problems for publicly operated hospitals hoping to use the technology to track patients and equipment. Under a compromise reached earlier this week, the bill will now allow the use of RFID under certain conditions.
- see the story from Federal Computer Week