POLICY AVOCACY AS IT PERTAINS TO PUBLIC POLICY

The Pros and Cons of Policy Avocacy as it pertains to Public Policy

The Pros and Cons of Policy Avocacy as it pertains to Public Policy

Interaction of RFID Technology And Public Policy

The rapid growth of technology has made it possible to track the shopping habits and consumption patterns of consumers through embedded transponders in the products they buy. Nowadays Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is widely used by retailers in this regard. However, consumers', privacy advocacy groups like CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) are totally against the use of these as they think that these processes breach privacy policies and contractual obligations to the consumer.

Introduction

It is science fiction no more; tiny transponders embedded in everything, starting from an innocuous 'cola can' to a package of razor blades to a shirt label can be used to track your shopping habits, your consumption patterns and eventually you. Recently in news, there had been major controversies regarding usage of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) by retail giants such as Benetton. Consumers, privacy advocacy groups like CASPIAN (Consumers against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) have mounted a media campaign against technology that captures consumer data which includes loyalty cards and RFID. Lack of privacy, concern for public health (electronic smog), unemployment, 24 hour tracking and ultimately loosing freedom… Are these the only issues playing in mind of consumers, privacy advocacy groups and the governments all over the world, or is there something more than what it meets the eye? This white paper would address these questions by referring to some of the existing findings and research reports. The main focus of this paper would be to find out what goes into developing a comprehensive public policy that balances marketers' information needs and consumers' concerns regarding privacy. The paper would not dwell on other issues relating to RFID such as concerns on health and safety, allocation of radio wave spectrum and rise of unemployment. The paper would also give an understanding of the current scenario with respect to personal data security and how current laws may impact the ability of future efforts to frame a comprehensive public policy on usage of RFID internationally. The paper would try to throw some light on a few existing policies which are meant to alleviate privacy concerns and finally, what would be the most probable successes factors which will make a new comprehensive public policy on RFID acceptable by consumers. It will endeavor to provide alternatives to the privacy problem raised by consumers and their counterparts and suggest optimal solution(s) to the imbroglio all the players are caught in.

Background

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a type of automatic identification system. The purpose of an RFID system is to enable data to be transmitted by a portable device, called a tag, which is read by an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a particular application. The data transmitted by the tag may provide identification, location information or specifics about the ...