IBM is demonstrating some new technologies to protect consumers who buy RFID-tagged products, but who want to avoid some of the privacy risks. In this case, the technology would let consumers easily decrease the range that an RFID chip broadcasts, so that they can still benefit from the RFID technology, without worrying about people reading the tags from a great distance. This isn’t a perfect solution by any means, but it does highlight the point that companies are working on technological means to fix the problems with RFIDs – a fine example of value sensitive design.
[via TechDirt]
Michael Zimmer, PhD, is a digital privacy and data ethics scholar at Marquette University
MichaelZimmer.org 