Privacy watchdog calls for RFID regulations

Consumers who buy RFID-enabled goods should have an automatic veto against their personal details being collected and associated with the device, says the European Data Protection Supervisor.

Responding to the European Commission's communication on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Europe, Peter Hustinx said self-regulation might be enough to start with, but that new privacy legislation may be needed.

He called for the commission to give clear guidance on how to apply the current legal framework to the RFID environment. He said there should be European Community legislation to regulate RFID usage in case the existing legal framework failed.

Such measures should lay down the opt-in principle at the point of sale as a precise and undeniable legal obligation, he said. He called for the identification of best available techniques to enable manufacturers to build in privacy in their system designs.