[LINK] Microsoft tracks people with RFID tags

[Roger Clarke]

At 15:43 +1000 21/8/08, Geoffrey Ramadan wrote:
>If you read the rest of the article you will note:
>"A person's entry will trigger an animated avatar on the big in-room screen
>using cutting-edge motion detection..
>No personally identifiable information, such as names, will be displayed
>alongside the avatar...

An avatar isn't personally identifiable?

How then can the rest of the aims of the scheme be achieved?


>Delegates will also be educated on how to opt-out or remove the RFID tag, ...

Good.


>  ... but Microsoft is hoping most will choose to participate...
>The network is intended to help delegates see when rooms are filling up,
>identify personal networking opportunities"

I wonder what measures are being used to ensure that no-one 
interprets that hope as a condition of employment, coercion, or even 
pressure.


>i.e. appropriate consideration for peoples privacy has been considered.

It's just a tad more complicated than that, Geoffrey.

Comprehensive risk assessment incl. consultation?  Comprehensive risk 
management plan?  Genuine consent?  Post-implementation audit of the 
key design features?  Enforceable undertakings?  Enforcement process? 
Sanctions?

And that's off the top of the head, without actually looking at the 
'Code' that Jan worked on, and that has been comprehensively ignored 
by the industry that used its preparation as evidence that it was 
privacy-sensitive.


-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW