The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and HID Corp., Irvine, Calif., announced a joint effort to provide a public forum to discuss RFID and public policy, and to explore innovative RFID uses for personal identification that enhance privacy and security. MIT and HID are creating a comprehensive online resource for industry, government and the general public to learn more about RFID and privacy-related topics.

“As government and private industry expand their use of RFID, privacy concerns have emerged that deserve a neutral forum for dialogue that includes stakeholders from government, private industry and the public,” said Dan Greenwood, an MIT lecturer and attorney. “We at MIT will provide that forum with support from HID, by inviting stakeholders to our campus and hosting a relevant Web site on our servers.”

A steering committee, composed of MIT researchers and faculty and an industry advisory board, will develop content for the Web site.

“MIT’s media lab is researching and developing new RFID design opportunities that support and reflect well-balanced public policy,” Greenwood said. MIT and HID will also collaborate to explore creative new uses for RFID which improve a wide array of transactions that take place in people’s daily lives.

Steve Wagner, chief operating officer of HID Corp., said his company welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with MIT. “We recognize the need to balance consumer privacy interests with the growing use of RFID across many sectors of the economy. Collaborating with MIT, a world-class educational institution, is a natural extension of our ongoing commitment to safeguarding individual privacy with the responsible use of RFID technology,” Wagner said.

In addition to working with MIT, HID established a set of corporate privacy policy principles governing the use of RFID. These privacy principles can be found on HID’s Web site at www.hidcorp.com.



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