September 19, 2003

Sun Expands Push For Auto-ID

From http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3080211

Already a major player in the Auto-ID market, Sun Microsystems this week announced an initiative for delivering the hardware, software and services that enable enterprises to link into the Elecronic Product Code (EPN) Network. The announcement coincided with news that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based services firm is creating a new Auto-ID business
...
Still, some experts such as Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego are skeptical. "The industry must make sure that they take into consideration the privacy and civil liberties implications of this technology," Givens told internetnews.com. "If Sun and other companies involved in RFID development do not address privacy implications head-on and design products with safeguards built in, they will face the same issue Intel experienced with Pentium III."

Posted by holtzman at September 19, 2003 09:15 PM
Comments

We can only agree with Beth Givens.

If Sun or IBM or SAP or any of the other companies planning to jump on the RFID / EPC bandwagon do not fully implement proper security and privacy features in their offerings, and if they repeat all the mistakes which they made during the development of the Internet when they help to create the Auto-ID Center's "internet of things", then they deserve to be facing conmsumer and privacy activist boycott pressure.

Remember, that currently, despite the "we are really pro-privacy" hype from Auto-ID, there have been *no* trials of RFID tags which can be "killed" or disabled at the checkout.


Posted by: Watching Them, Watching Us at September 20, 2003 12:19 PM
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