Abstract

The perpetual debate on RFID as a risk to privacy has lead to a variety of technical proposals for securing RFID data and encompasses, apart from general IT security measures, a number of RFID-specific “Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs)”. Against the background of an imminent obligation to include privacy-enhancing mechanisms in the retail industry’s current RFID deployments, this contribution provides a critical review of the undesired side-effects of PETs on information systems and business processes. As our investigation shows, the practical impact includes increased hardware costs, reduced capabilities of the technology, and a range of process-related issues, e.g. in the context of password management and consumer benefits. We discuss the managerial implications for RFID implementation strategies and propose a set of alternative starting points for fostering the public acceptance of the