I used to have this professor at Oxford, okay? Doctor Wickham, his name was and he was, like, this massive fat guy, you know? Huge, big guy. We used to call him - you know, well, I won’t tell you what we used to call him, but he taught biomolecular kinetics and cellular dynamics. And he used to sort of scare the underclassmen with this story about how the world would eventually be eviscerated by technology. You see, it was inevitable that a compound would be created which he referred to as the ‘Anti-God’. It was like an accelerated mutator or sort of, you know, like a, an unstoppable force of destructive power, that would just lay waste to everything - to buildings and parks and streets and children and ice cream parlors, you know?
– Mission Impossible III
Washington state’s house of representatives approved a bill that would make RFID “skimming” a felony and prohibit capturing data from an RFID tag in an identity card without the cardholder’s permission.
House Bill (HB) 1031—intended to limit collection of personal information from an RFID tag without the tag holder’s knowledge or consent—passed with 69 to 27 votes. The bill is now headed for the State Senate and, if approved, to the office of Governor Christine Gregoire.
This is the second round for HB 1031. An earlier version failed to pass a House vote in March 2007 (see Washington’s RFID Bill Halted). In its original form, HB 1031 was rejected because of its broad scope, says the bill’s primary sponsor, State Representative Jeff Morris (D-Mount Vernon).
Known at that time as the “Electronic Bill of Rights,” the first version did not offer exemptions for a host of users, including emergency responders, university researchers and service providers such as cable companies. The revised bill also has eliminated mention of a labeling requirement. Such a requirement was opposed by business associations and technology vendors, who argue that they already have labeling conduct codes in place through organizations such as EPCglobal.
“People have this Hollywood view of RFID as being a chip implanted in a person, like in the movie ‘Mission Impossible III,’ and that person can be tracked by a helicopter five miles away,” said Patrick Sweeney, CEO of Odin Technologies.
Washington state’s “enhanced” driver’s license will be used for crossing the Canadian border in lieu of a passport. The new driver’s license would be cheaper and more convenient than applying for a $97 passport.
It will contain a Radio Frequency Identification chip, which the guard booths will use to scan the license as a traveler or trucker pulls up to the booth. U.S. passports issued since late 2006 already contain RFID chips.
This year, at least 17 states, up from 12 states in 2005, are considering legislation that would limit RFID use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures of Denver. Both New Hampshire and Wisconsin over the last year passed legislation limiting RFID.
Worldwide radio frequency identification (RFID) revenue is forecast to total $1.2 billion in 2008, a 30.9 percent increase from 2007 revenue of $917.3 million, according to Gartner, Inc. By 2012, worldwide RFID revenue is forecast to total $3.5 billion.
Related DailyWireless articles include; Passports Go Long, RFID Shoes and Nightmare or Reality?
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