Calif. Tries RFID Regulation Again

The California Senate plans to vote on bills this week that would limit the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in documents the government issues for personal identification, ComputerWorld reports. According to the article:

Two of the bills would impose a three-year moratorium on the use of RFID technology in California driver’s licenses and in public school ID cards, while a third would create interim privacy safeguards for existing RFID-enabled government IDs, such as those that students use in the state college system.

A fourth bill would make it a crime to “skim,” or surreptitiously read, data from an RFID document.

The remaining bill addresses fears that companies might try to force their employees to undergo an RFID implantation, noted [the bills' sponsor Sen. Joe] Simitian.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) vetoed similar bills last October.

As the use of RFID technology spreads, opposition to the technology has increased. The Electronic Privacy Information Center provides a web page containing a compilation of reports and articles written about RFID.