International Herald Tribune- EU looks to limit use of radio ID tags

H/T to parallelnormal
EU looks to limit use of radio ID tags

a few exerpts from this article:

This pioneering pilot project of the Metro Group, a retail chain in Germany, heralds a shopping experience of the future in which dress shirts can wirelessly offer accessorizing tips to shoppers. But the rapid development of RFID technology is also being regarded cautiously by the authorities in the European Union, who are moving quickly to establish privacy guidelines because the chips - and the information being collected - are not always visible.

Their goal is to raise awareness among consumers that the data-gathering chips are becoming embedded in their lives - in items like credit cards, public transportation passes, work access badges, borrowed library books and supermarket loyalty cards.

There are also policy concerns regarding whether retailers could link a customer’s credit card data to an RFID tag in a product, allowing clients to be identified when they return to a store.

and further down in the article-

Retailers have tended to use the chips for logistical purposes like tracking deliveries, but companies are starting to get more inventive. A British uniform supplier, Trutex, said it was developing clothing with chips to track schoolchildren, in part because of surveys that showed parents were favorable to the idea.

McDonald’s has been testing an RFID ordering system in Seoul on special tables equipped with touch-pad menus and fitted with readers that allow customers to link their mobile phones and order hamburgers. The tab goes on the mobile.

Tags: privacy, surveillance, RFID chips