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RFID on the EU level – A documentation by FoeBuD
Within the European Commission there is a data protection working group, called the "Article 29 Working Group". For some months now this group is also occupied with RFID, holds meetings and conferences, and every so often asks others to prepare papers on how RFID should be treated on the EU level. We follow and comment on these activities as closely as we can do this, depending , as we do, solely on voluntary work and e.g. without having travel expenses paid for us. On these pages we document what is going on.
Back to the German StopRFID EU-consultation main page
We ask all readers for their active co-operation, and to share their ideas and criticism with us. Write us an e-mail.
NOTE: Until September 30 also YOU have the opportunity to take part in an online opinion poll of the EU. More about this can be found below.
In March 2004
...there was a first public workshop held on the EU level which, however, mainly concentrated on RFID implementations and technical improvements (e.g. of reading ranges). The question was how the EU could be helpful in the development of RFID. There was also one session devoted to questions that had been voiced about data protection – that was in the spring of the year when the FoeBuD had started its StopRFID campaign and caused a stir with its protests against the Metro Group.
In the autumn of 2004
...the data protection group at the European Commission, the so-called " Article 29 Working Group" headed by Germany's Federal Data Protection Official Peter Schaar proposed a "Working Paper 105" about RFID.
The "Working Paper 105"
in German
in English
in French
Early in 2005
... we commented on this paper:
Read the comments by FoeBuD e.V. on the WP 105 “Data protection issues related to RFID technology”.
These comments were published, together with comments from other groups, firms, university working groups etc, and summarised by the EU in the paper "WP 111" – in which, of course, a number of issues fell through the cracks.
At the CeBit 2006
... Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for the Information and Media, announced a large-scale series of consultations about RFID. These comprised several workshops. There is a special web site about these consultations: http://www.rfidconsultation.eu.
In May 2006
... two workshops were held in quick succession: One of them on implementations that might arise out of RFID. There we found, e.g., proposals that the EU could advise its member states to prescribe RFID in military equipment in order to boost the market... The second workshop was devoted to "Health and Safety" but also explicitly to "Data Protection & Privacy". For this workshop we prepared a statement that comments on a number of utterances that needed special attention:
Read FoeBuD's answers and additions to the workshop "RFID Security, Data Protection & Privacy, Health and Safety Issues" from May 16-17, 2006
In this workshop, a paper from the CDT ("Center for Democracy and Technology", USA) was, among others, referred to and praised several times as a success model and a basis for possible ways of handling RFID also in the EU. We translated this paper and were appalled at its superficiality.
Read FoeBuD's German translation...
Therefore we laid down our criticism in a separate statement to this paper:
Read FoeBuD's response, criticism and suggestions for improvement to the CDT "Privacy Best Practices for Deployment of RFID Technology" from May 1, 2006
In September 2006
... we made a package out of many of the above mentioned texts and sent it to the EU.
Introduction: FoeBuD's letter to the European Commission.
Comments by FoeBuD e.V. on the WP 105: “Data protection issues related to RFID technology”
Until September 30, 2006
... the EU gives citizens the opportunity to fill an online questionnaire on RFID. We recommend that all interested people take part in this so that the European Commission will get as broad a range of opinions as possible as its basis for further work. By middle of October 2006 there is to be a workshop to close the series of consultations.
Our assessment:
The goings-on surrounding RFID on the European level make us very uneasy. The economic lobby made up of producers and users is very strong and we fear that there will be rules set down for the handling of RFID which would endanger our idea about freedom and privacy. Therefore we recommend the text from FoeBuD's co-director Rena Tangens "Will Trade Civil Rights For Lentil Pottage – The 'Tell Us All About You' Knowledge Society", published e.g. in the book "Schwarzbuch Datenschutz".
2006-09-15 20:07
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