Lawmaker Seeks Change In California RFID Laws

Jun 19, 2007 3:30 PM

Attempting to prevent a potential clash between privacy rights and the latest technological advances, a Palo Alto lawmaker is trying to dissuade the California government, schools and private businesses from tracking people through the use of radio frequency identification technology such as electronic cards and implanted devices.

A legislative package of four measures by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, was introduced in an Assembly committee on June 18, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The measures would prohibit an employer from implanting tiny ID chips in workers, block RFID technology from being embedded in driver's licenses, prohibit schools from issuing ID cards to track student attendance and make it a misdemeanor to skim identification cards - a method by which identity thieves secretly read the cards of unsuspecting people and clone new versions.

His measures, opposed by the tech industry, were prompted in part by the increasing availability of wireless equipment sold in stores and cyberspace that can read employee badges - even if they are in someone's pocket or purse 20 feet away - and create a new card using that individual's personal information.

"Bad people might access the information and do bad things with it - could be identity theft, could be stalking, could be profiling, all that's possible," says Simitian. "The larger issue has to do with government's use of the information."

The proposed laws are supported by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Gun Owners of America and consumer organizations.

Opposition is strong from the AeA, the tech industry's major lobbying arm, which represents firms that develop the cards and says legislation is unnecessary.

"You should go after inappropriate use or unauthorized access," says the association's Roxanne Gould, a spokeswoman for the High-Tech Trust Coalition, made up of three dozen companies. "When phones were invented, someone figured out how to tap into them, and as a result, we didn't just get rid of the phones."

Simitian and the ACLU became interested in tightening RFID policy two years ago after learning that a school in the Northern California town of Sutter gave students ID badges with an embedded microchip to track their movements as part of an attendance policy. The school eventually abandoned the technology.

Most recently, RFID technology has come under fire by privacy advocates after it was revealed that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees the Bay Area's toll system, had been releasing information to divorce lawyers regarding the location and times when cars using FasTrak transponders crossed the region's bridges.

However, Gould says that RFID "is a very secure way of storing either a unique identifier or higher levels of security, and as a result, it's something that should be embraced, not something that should be demonized."

The bills are:
* SB28 would prevent the DMV from using RFID in driver's licenses for three years.

* SB29 would bar K-12 public schools from using RFID to track, monitor or record students for three years.

* SB30 would establish fundamental protections for any government-issued ID, by telling the card holders the kind of information contained in the card, and revealing the type of technology built into that tag.

* SB362 would prohibit a person from requiring, coercing or compelling anyone to undergo subcutaneous implanting of an identification device.

* SB388, by Sen. Ellen Corbett, would allow an individual to sue the maker of RFID equipment used in scanning their personal information.

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