Observations on privacy

American and European citizens may soon have to face up to the use of electronic tags on their clothing, convenience food or under their skin. This is because an unregulated market could allow retailers and government agencies to undermine privacy and security rights.

The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag consists of a unique ID number stored on a chip that is attached to an antenna. This transmits a frequency from up to 90 feet to a reader, which converts information into a readable format.

Such tags are popular among farmers for keeping track of livestock. Western retailers and the US military use them to track supplies, lawyers use them to find legal files, and there is even an RFID-enabled money box that, when stolen, self-destructs. Tags can contain personal data, social security details and credit card information; the consumer's skin can be labelled with the same ease as a cow's ear or a packet of razor blades, from 12p per tag.

In the first public use of subdermal RFID tagging, the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona offered guests the chance to have a tag injected into their bodies to guarantee entry and debit their account for drinks. The creator of the subdermal chip, Applied Digital Solutions' Veri-Chip, says that this method of payment is fraud-proof because the chip, in becoming part of the consumer's body, cannot be stolen.

Privacy experts are calling for a more regulated market. Those in charge of the database of information collected from tags have evidence of how much alcohol, fatty food and king-size cigarette papers you have purchased. Those at the helm of the reader can profile and track individuals without their consent. "If an RFID chip were implanted into an ID card, loyalty card, credit card, bank note or driving licence, a person could be electronically frisked without their knowledge," says Chris McDermott of NoTags, who campaigns against their misuse. "Allowing organisations to know remotely who you are and where you have been would in effect end consumer privacy."

It is not inconceivable that an RFID detector van could pass down your street and, from radio waves emitted from a house's kitchen, find out exactly what is in the fridge. Freedom to use such technology would be ideal for direct marketers.

Costs are currently too expensive for most fast-moving consumer goods, but Metro Group, Germany's largest retailer, aims to tag every item with RFID. UK retailers use tags on their supply chain, and this has proven effective and non-intrusive. However, there are serious implications. If a reader can determine where one has visited or whether one is, say, reading books on terrorism, it can help establish if an individual is a "security risk".

In the US, where such tags are already used for authorising access to government facilities, research laboratories and so on, security services are looking for cost-effective ways to keep tabs on potentially insurgent behaviour. It may not be long before RFID tagging is used on selected citizens entering the country because it is much more revealing than a passport or fingerprinting at the border - especially because the US has yet to draft regulation on the privacy implications of tag usage.

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