RFID Tags and Privacy: When Enough is Enough?

We all know that change can be hard, but when it comes to technology, life has certainly become easier in many ways! Technology has enabled us to travel by car and plane instead of by horse. We flip a switch for light when the sun begins to set. If there is a chill in the air, we press a button to warm our homes. We have limitless information available at our fingertips within seconds.

Last weekend, when I was baking with my son, I peeled open a stick of butter, popped it in a bowl and turned on the microwave to melt to melt it. Just that simple act alone would have represented hours of work centuries ago. I would have had to milk the cow, separate the cream, and churn it (by hand) into butter. Then, I would have melted it over a fire that I had built and tended – probably with wood that my husband had chopped and stacked.

So, technology is a good thing, right? Well, maybe not in every instance.

Back in November 2012, I wrote about a high school in San Antonio, Texas that had begun implementing the use of mandatory RFID chips on student ID tags. To this day, the school requires that all students wear RFID tags while on school grounds. The driving factor is to help locate students who are on school property after the bell rings to make sure they are in class because state aid is awarded based upon the number of students in attendance.

Needless to say, there has been some backlash from students, families, and various groups and organizations who have claimed that this method of tracking students is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union, for one, has labeled RFID student tags as “intrusive” and claims an invasion of liberties and rights to privacy. In fact, one student and her family sued the district, citing religious grounds. However, according to a federal court decision in January 2013, the school district is within their rights to require students to wear ID tags. The student plans to appeal the court’s decision and continue fighting the district, but the results remain to be seen.

Now, here’s the catch. The school in question is a magnet school – a school that this girl has chosen to attend as an alternative to her home school. If she truly does not want to wear the RIFD tag, she can transfer back to the high school in her home neighborhood. But what will happen for this student and others like her when public school districts nationwide inevitably start implementing the same types of technology mandates? Will students be required to comply, regardless of their personal convictions and beliefs?

I think we can all agree that technology has played an incredible role in our society thus far – but where is the boundary between “helpful” and “intrusive”?