SIA voices opposition to California RFID measure

Sep 5, 2006 3:23 PM

The Security Industry Association (SIA) has voiced its opposition to California State Senator Joe Simitian's bill imposing several severe measures concerning Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).
The following is a letter SIA CEO Richard Chace sent to Simitian:
"The Security Industry Association (SIA) respectfully expresses its opposition to Senate Bill 768, the Identity Information Protection Act of 2005, and related legislation (Senate Bills 432, 682, and 1078) that could severely impede the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
"SIA and its members agree there may be some legitimate concerns about the use of RFID technology in certain applications. However, we strongly believe these legislative proposals could have dire unintended consequences on technology used to ensure the validity of identification credentials. The legislation could set several dangerous precedents:
The legislation seems to assume that technology innovation is static; in reality, problems are addressed quickly through the rapid technological evolution for which our industry is known. SIA is concerned that your legislation could lock in a set of criteria that will be obsolete and actually less safe than what technology could make available tomorrow.
In our opinion, the aforementioned Senate bills give the appearance of favoring particular technologies by banning or restricting the use of RFID to very specific applications. This is neither a customary nor advisable purpose of legislative activity.
Current governmental perceptions of RFID applications, unfortunately, seem largely dependent upon twisted facts and emotions generated by so-called "privacy rights" advocates. We submit that legislative decisions in this area could be best and most objectively guided by appropriate government professionals: state, county, and municipal government agencies or their subdivisions. In our opinion, their informed input is essential to any debate on the security of individuals and property -- including the security of individual privacy.
Although SIA cannot support your legislation as currently proposed, we stand ready to work with you on alternative public policies that would increase penalties for those who steal personal electronic data for the purpose of committing a crime (i.e. identity theft or duplicating an access card). As this policy debate moves forward, SIA welcomes the opportunity to address any privacy concern raised by the use of RFID technology. We are confident that our industry can help address these concerns either through legislation or technological innovation."

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