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California Moves to Prohibit RFID in Licenses and Education

Bans use for three years.

The Californa Senate recently passed two bills that would prohibit public-sector use of RFID tags in driver licenses and education for a period of three years. The bills now move to the House of Representatives. 

Senate Bill 28 would prohibit the department from "issuing, renewing, duplicating, or replacing a drivers license or identification card, if the license or card uses radio waves to either transmit personal information remotely or to enable personal information to be read from the license or card remotely. This bill would provide that its provisions shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2011, and as of that date would be repealed."

Senate Bill 29 would prohibit a public school, school district, and county office of education from "issuing any device to a pupil that uses radio waves to transmit personal information, as defined, or to enable personal information to be viewed remotely for the purposes of recording the attendance of a pupil at school, establishing or tracking the location of a pupil on school grounds, or both. The bill would repeal these provisions as of January 1, 2011."

Several other RFID-related bills are also under consideration.

Wayne E. Hanson served as a writer and editor with e.Republic from 1989 to 2013, having worked for several business units including Government Technology magazine, the Center for Digital Government, Governing, and Digital Communities. Hanson was a juror from 1999 to 2004 with the Stockholm Challenge and Global Junior Challenge competitions in information technology and education.