- The controversial radio frequency ID (RFID) tracking
tags will become ubiquitous in consumer goods but privacy issues, standards
and cost need to be addressed first, according to a senior executive of
UK supermarket chain Safeway.
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- Safeway ran an RFID pilot with Unilever last year on
40,000 cases of Lynx deodorant tracking them from the factory through to
the shelves of three stores and, in an exclusive interview with silicon.com,
Safeway CIO Ric Francis said that while the company has no immediate plans
to use RFID, the pilot did enough to convince him that the technology is
absolutely key to the future of the retail sector.
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- "We see that as a long-term investment. RFID is
clearly going to be hugely important to the retail business," he said.
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- Two obstacles that potentially stand in the way of the
replacement barcode technology are common standards and cost, according
to Francis.
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- "My biggest fear about RFID is that if we all try
and do independent things we'll end up with a range of standards that is
not sustainable for the industry as a whole," he said.
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- Once the standards are in place and the cost of the RFID
chips drops, then the technology will become an unseen and accepted part
of shopping, he added.
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- "As and when it becomes cheap enough it will be
important from the consumer point of view as well," he said. "That
will start, I think, with higher value items and will come down and down
throughout the sales portfolio. If these things end up being a penny a
go, which I'm sure they will be at some point in time, then that will be
a route to implement in a ubiquitous nature."
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- That is likely to lead to protests from the privacy lobby
over concerns about how the tracking data is used - concerns that will
need to be addressed, said Francis.
-
- "What that means with regard to civil liberties
organisations I really don't know. But that's something I feel we have
to overcome. As a technology industry we have to overcome," he said.
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- Read the full interview with the committed West Ham United
fan and former global CIO of PepsiCo later this week on silicon.com.
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- http://www.silicon.com/management/itdirector/0,39024673,39117877,00.htm<
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