Andreas Broeckmann on Wed, 2 Aug 2006 20:28:01 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime-ann> (fwd) European Commission's RFID public consultation |
. [it would be great if some of the critical artistic research that is being done in this field would be fed back into the political debate; -ab] Hi all, just a short note to tell you that the European Commission is holding a public RFID consultation on its website after previous Workshops on the issue in May and June. So who ever feels like commenting on RFID policy is welcome to do so under: http://www.rfidconsultation.eu/ http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=RFID Greetings, Christine ***************************************************************** The Information Society and Media Directorate General is consulting stakeholders on their opinions on development and deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, and on possible ways to stimulate its use while mitigating its potential negative impacts on privacy and health. A public debate on RFID was launched on 9 March 2006 by Mrs Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, at the CeBIT fair in Hannover. "Developments around RFID, Commissioner Viviane Reding said, open the door to a new wave of productivity gains across a wide range of sectors. Remember that productivity is the engine of economic growth and job creation. (...) We must also make some decisions of principle on the security and privacy issues associated with widespead government and commercial use of RFID technology. The time for action is now. (...) I will not see the liberty of citizens and their fundamental rights being compromised". Between March and June 2006 five workshops took place in Brussels to discuss and build consensus on the main issues, challenges and opportunities related to the use of RFID. These workshops addressed the research and technological development requirements and options, the growing use of RFID in commercial and governmental applications, the legal and societal issues related to security and privacy protection, the standardisation, interoperability and governance issues, and the current and future frequency spectrum requirements. The present consultation seeks feedback from all stakeholders involved in the development and deployment of RFID technology as well as from consumer and civil liberty organisations that feel concerned by the potential societal implications of RFID use in situations where personal data processing is involved. Should you wish, you are invited before replying to read the supporting background document called "Your voice on RFID" which provides a summary of the views and conclusions that emerged from the workshops and which may provide useful guidance on the concepts and vocabulary relevant to the field. The creation of a conducive and stable policy environment for the implementation and use of RFID calls for a wide consensus among experts on certain complex technical issues such as standards and interoperability, the read range designed into a particular RFID system, frequency allocation, privacy and security, counterfeiting prevention, and the integration of RFID with other technologies. It is imperative to understand the technology, its full potential and the related business requirements in order to appreciate its policy implications. Please note that peculiar issues related to RFID technology such as, for example, its possible health effects or the governance of identities across the associated decentralised and distributed databases, can be addressed by respondents, should they have an opinion and wish to express it, in question 38. But besides getting the knowledgeable opinion from the key stakeholders in the field, the European Commission is also keen to consult all interested citizens on issues that are primarily a matter of personal opinion and choice. In this respect, compulsory questions are mainly intended to elicit the general public's views with respect to not purely technical problems whereas optional questions are primarily set to collect the views from RFID specialists. On the basis of the replies, the European Commission intends to prepare a Communication to Euro _______________________________________________ nettime-ann mailing list nettime-ann@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-ann