European Commission probes privacy concerns over tracking technologies

The European Commission is to investigate whether or not people have the right to ‘disappear’ from the ever-more pervasive digital networks that surround them.

The Commission has launched a consultation after expressing concern about the privacy implications of technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, used to identify and track people, and what it calls the ‘internet of things’.

The internet of things refers to the increasing automatic communication between everyday devices, from computers and phones to home appliances that interconnect and which are forming complex networks around citizens.

Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for information society and media said: " Every day we see new examples of applications that connect objects to the internet and each other: from cars connected to traffic lights that fight congestion, to home appliances connected to smart power grids and energy metering that allows people to be aware of their electricity consumption or connected pedestrian footpaths that guide the visually impaired.”

The Commission, which believes existing trends towards interconnection of devices will continue, said it needs to debate the technical and legal aspects so it can form a plan on how it will legislate and regulate of these technologies.

These can be simple everyday items such as yogurt pots that record the temperature along their supply chain, or more sophisticated things such as health monitoring systems.

"The promise of this new development of the internet is as limitless as the number of objects in our daily life it involves. However, we need to make sure that Europeans, as citizens, as entrepreneurs and as consumers, lead the technology, rather than the technology leading us," said Ms Reding.

The Commission has outlined the areas in which it will take action to try to ensure that any new object networks do not trample on the rights of the individuals who interact with them.

Its first objective now is to create a set of principles and to ensure that privacy and data protection are considered from the outset in the building of any systems.