In the future ubiquitous-computing environment, RFID tags will be
attached to all kinds of products and other physical objects, even to people, and could become a fundamental technology for ubiquitous services
where the tags are used to identify things and people automatically.
However, despite this promise, the possible abuse (or just excessive use)
by retailers and government agencies of RFID’s tracking capability raises
questions about potential violations of personal privacy.
Here, we discuss two protest campaigns—one against apparel manufacturer Benetton in Italy, the other against Tesco in the U.K.—that
reflect the growing concern among consumer-privacy advocates regarding how RFID might affect personal data. Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN, www.
nocards.org) criticized Benetton’s plans to attach tags to its products,
leading to a boycott of those products in 2003 [9]. Earlier this year,
CASPIAN similarly criticized Tesco for conducting experimental trials