RFID is for the Bird Seed

The Department of Homeland Security's privacy advisory committee has issued a draft report which strongly recommends against the use of tracking chips in identification documents issued.

But for other applications related to human beings, [Radio Frequency Identification Devices] appears to offer little benefit when compared to the consequences it brings for privacy and data integrity. Instead, it increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security.

Most difficult and troubling is the situation in which RFID is ostensibly used for tracking objects (medicine containers, for example), but can be in fact used for monitoring human behavior. These types of uses are still being explored and remain difficult to predict.

For these reasons, we recommend that RFID be disfavored for identifying and tracking human beings. When DHS does choose to use RFID to identify and track individuals, we recommend the implementation of the specific security and privacy safeguards described herein.

The report goes on to succinctly describe how the chips don't offer much benefit in terms of speed or identification of the bearer off an RFID-equipped identification card or form.

[S]omeone holding a key to a house cannot be identified as the owner of the house based upon possession of that key alone.

The RFID-chipped I-94 Form, for example, is not directly linked to individuals by a reliable biometric. The RFID chip in the form is useful for tracking the location of the form and correlating the form with a specific entry in a visitor database, but the form and the chip are easily transferred from one person to another.

The report (.pdf) mercifully clocks in at 14 pages and is a great primer on the drawbacks, perils, and marginal benefits of using RFID tags for human identification.

Those of you in the Bay Area interested in such things should check out the June 7 meeting of the DHS Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee in San Francisco.

(Hat Tip to advisory member Jim Harper)

Tags: rfid, dhs, IfAPrivacyMeetingIsHeldInSanFranciscoWillAnyoneInDCHearIt