The European Commission has signed a voluntary privacy impact assessment with industry, civil society groups and privacy advocates to establish guidelines for radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, a technology gaining in use and popularity. The Privacy and Data Protection Impact Assessment Framework for RFID Applications aims to ensure consumers' privacy ahead of widespread use of the tags; about one billion are expected to be used in Europe in 2011 for applications such as bus and metro passes and highway tolls, Dow Jones Newswires reports. Privacy and security concerns include that third-parties will use the location-based data without permission and such data as biometric, health and other identity information will also be stored on the tags.
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