RFID chips: European Commission publishes recommendation on privacy

Another point in the Recommendation is that any product containing an RFID chip is badged with a common, EU-wide sign alerting consumers to that fact.

The Commission also said that any organisation using RFID chips must conduct a privacy and data protection assessment on its impact on privacy, and that these studies must be reviewed by their country's data protection authorities.

"A promising technology for the future, smart chips can make life simpler in all sorts of ways," said the Commissioner for the Information Society, Viviane Reding. "There is clear economic potential in using small, smart chips to allow communication between objects."

"But Europeans must never be taken unawares by the new technology. This is why the Commission issued strong recommendations to the industry today. European consumers must be confident that if and when their personal data is involved, their privacy will be impregnable also in a changing technological environment," she said.