Radio Frequency Identification and the Ethics of Privacy

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are in the forefront of a wave of new technologies that promise to greatly increase the efficiency of firms, but also to raise the specter of significant invasions of individual privacy. As firms begin to implement such technologies they must resist the temptation to maximize their short-term gains fro collecting, aggregating and sharing this information. Otherwise, it is very unlikely that the consumer backlash will reduce or even eliminate the advantage of these technologies. To achieve the maximum long-term benefit from this new technology, firms will have to balance consumer concerns about the ethics of privacy while allowing use of this new technology where it does not significantly impinge on those concerns. In order to do so, firms must establish and follow a strict set of guidelines that adequately protects the privacy concerns of individuals. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]