Technology Raises Privacy Concerns

The foundation is particularly concerned about a recent decision by the San Francisco Public Library to convert more than 2.2 million items, including 568,000 materials in the children and teen collections, from its current barcode system to RFID to streamline sorting and allow self-serve checkout. Lee Tien, a staff lawyer at the foundation, says patrons' privacy may be compromised if government officials or others access or track the information contained in the tiny chips. "Location tracking information is becoming a bigger part of a surveillance society," says Tien, referring to provisions under the USA Patriot Act, which makes it easier for investigators to access library records. "Do libraries want to adopt this technology and be a bigger part of this trend?"

Tien isn't lobbying against the new technology, he just wants libraries to look at the bigger picture. "What does it mean for society when you start deploying these devices all over the place? Can it one day be scanned remotely, or at the airport, or a federal building?" he asks. Tien also says libraries are an obvious target for RFID makers such as Checkpoint Systems and 3M to "legitimize this technology and make it more innocuous and inevitable."

Critics simply don't understand how RFID technology works, says Justine Kim, a project manager at the Seattle Public Library, which just spent $4.6 million for roughly 2 million RFID chips, along with the accompanying sorting equipment, conveyer belts, and bins that make up the Tech Logic automated system. The chip, which looks like a piece of foil, acts like a barcode with book and patron information, but that information is temporarily linked to the library's operating system only when it's scanned. After that, the chip is deactivated, making it impossible to retrieve any information. "It's a passive chip with no power or battery, so it doesn't have the capacity to link itself to anything," Kim says. "The chip only has an eight-inch reading range." To access user information with RFID, investigators will need a court order, as is the case now.

The San Francisco Public Library is well aware of the controversy surrounding RFID and is carefully researching the matter before making any decisions, says library spokes-woman Marcia Schneider. The system has not yet been funded and won't be ready until at least 2005.

Meanwhile, Jill Jean, director of the Seattle central library, says RFID speeds up checkout and check-in, improves inventory tracking, and reduces repetitive stress injuries that result from using barcode wands. More than 50 libraries in the U.S. currently use RFID.