What does Europe do today to ensure the privacy of its citizens?
There is a strong concern that the large-scale use of RFID technology may breach the consumer’s right to privacy. It is therefore not surprising that many consumer protection organisations have been very active in alerting consumers. The European Commission has long been aware of civil rights concerns to do with information and communication technologies. EU law addresses these concerns in various instruments including the Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data (95/46/EC) of 1995 and the so-called “e-Privacy” Directive on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronics communications sector (2002/58/EC) of 2002. The Commission will hold in the course of the year 2006 a specific workshop on privacy and security aspects of RFID to identify real privacy concerns and try to build consensus on effective and balanced answers.
