Washington State Adopts Second RFID Privacy Law

Washington State Adopts Second RFID Privacy Law

Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire has signed into law a bill prohibiting the scanning of an RFID tag by anyone except the business or agency that issued that tag, with certain exceptions. 

The legislation, known as House Bill (HB) 1011, lists a dozen such exceptions, including situations in which the scanning is part of a sales transaction initiated by the tag holder, or data from an individual's identification device is remotely read or stored in the course of an act of good-faith security research, experimentation or scientific inquiry. The law is set to go into effect on July 26, 2009. 

HB 1011 was one of three RFID-related privacy-protection bills introduced by House Speaker Pro Tempore Jeff Morris (D-Mount Vernon) in January of this year (see Washington State Rep Reintroduces RFID Legislation). While HB 1011 was modified and ultimately signed into law on Apr. 13, Morris says the remaining two bills will be dropped for the current legislative session.