RFID Debated For Driver's Licenses

By DAVID SIMS

TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

Privacy advocates are asking the Homeland Security Department "not to include the use of Radio Frequency Identification contactless chips in its regulations for implementing the Real ID Act for state driver's licenses," according to published reports.

In a Jan. 13 letter to Secretary Michael Chertoff, Newsbytes reports, "the groups assert that RFID costs a lot, lacks standardized technology and poses potential dangers to privacy from unauthorized reading of the chips."

While the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost of implementing the Real ID Act at $100 million, reports say, Citizens Against Government Waste judged that an RFID chip mandate as part of the act would cost up to $17 billion.

RFID is a technology almost tailor-made for use tracking transportation and the movement of people, as well as goods: PierPASS Inc. announced last week the creation of the "TruckTag program, created to enhance security in marine terminals at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by improving the process of checking trucks and drivers entering the terminals.

Under the program, according to The Auto Channel, "PierPASS will distribute RFID electronic tags to be installed on trucks, similar to the FasTrak and E-ZPass devices used for automated toll collection, enabling quick and secure check-in at the terminals."

Marine terminals are required by the Department of Homeland Security and Coast Guard to ensure that only those with proper business at the ports are permitted inside.

Under the TruckTag program, Auto Channel explains, "PierPASS will distribute 10,000 RFID tags to trucking companies, and the trucking companies will be responsible for distributing the tags to their drivers. When a truck arrives at a terminal, the RFID tag will automatically be read by an electronic reader posted at the gate. Simultaneously, the truck driver will insert his commercial driver's license into a machine that will verify that the driver and truck have authorized business at the terminal."

According to some estimates, the worldwide market for RFID technology was $1.49 billion in 2004. The demand for RFID systems is certainly increasing. Some estimates are that the industry will be worth $1.95 billion in 2005 and as much as $26.9 billion in 2015, with a lot of the profits coming from the sale of RFID hardware components.

RFID applications are used for such functions as security/access control, toll collection, animal tracking and automobile immobilization as well as stocking Wal-Mart, Metro AG, Target, Tesco shelves and for "other uses" by the US Department of Defense.

However, people are increasingly worried about the loss of privacy in widespread RFID usage, given the ability to easily track RFID-tagged products. And such fears, if not addressed, could hobble the RFID industry.

"[RFID] will make objects -- and the people wearing and carrying them -- remotely trackable," charges Katherine Albrecht, a spokeswoman for the consumer group. "We have rock-solid evidence that they are already devising ways to exploit that potential," she tells the AP.

Industry observer Evan Schuman has written that the book, Spychips, which undertakes to explain RFID's possible uses, while indulging in hyperbole on occasion constructs "a stunningly powerful argument against plans for RFID being mapped out by government agencies, retail and manufacturing companies. Sources and evidence for their arguments come from patent applications, interviews and confidential documents carelessly left on vendors' Web sites."

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

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