RFID & kids: Good or bad?

Partly because a school in California was going to use it without consulting parents and partly because people don't understand it, RFID has been in the news a lot lately. RFID, aka "radio-frequency identification," technology so far has been used for inventory control and highway tolls. Now it's suddenly in the realm of children's privacy.

Brittan Elementary School, north of Sacramento, Calif., was widely in the news because it was to be the first school in California to test this next-generation bar-code technology on student ID badges. This week the school decided not to go forward with the program "when the company that developed the technology pulled out," the Associated Press reported. The proposed test had sparked protests from parents, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (see its press release), and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (and media coverage nationwide), the San Jose Mercury News had earlier reported. The real issue may be where RFID is headed, when it's associated with people's identities and movements (especially children's). Will future versions be able to "know" or "tell" too much? Please see my newsletter this week for some context and perspective.