“Privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht, an opponent of the use of radio tags on consumer goods and in ID documents, is a woman any X-Files fan could love. She’s youthful-looking and attractive, with fair skin and cherry-blonde hair. A former schoolteacher, Albrecht also has a master’s degree from Harvard, where she is completing a doctoral degree.”

Ok…

“But one aspect of Albrecht’s anti-RFID crusade has been attracting a lot of attention from other privacy groups: her religious beliefs.”

Wait, what?

“Many of us in the mainstream privacy community,” said [EFF Lawyer] Tien, “don’t know how to reach out to (the Christian community).”

As bloggers, developers of open source software and supporters of copyright reform, RFID News editors have long been supporters of the EFF. We also strongly believe that U.S. legislators need to define and extend privacy rights. Further, we encourage religious groups to participate in government and the democratic process.

However, the EFF’s goals of protecting personal information and Christian groups’ attempts to identify biblical prophecies are ideologically disparate. Both are worthwhile pursuits, yet the combination has been ineffective in curbing the development of identification systems. If you haven’t been paying attention, major credit card companies are deploying contactless payment mechanisms on a large scale, and data collection agencies have mishandled millions of citizens’ personal information.

By rallying against item-level RFID — a science-fiction technology decades away — the odd couple of privacy advocates and Christian groups share weaknesses. Easily characterized as both religious zealots and liberal academics, the anti-RFID movement is as faceless as it is distracted.

Mrs. Albrecht and the EFF have misguided a grassroots movement. Instead of lobbying for federal guidelines on how identifying information is collected and stored, resources are devoted to preventing elementary school identification cards and being spied on by razor blades. Both groups are attacking a straw-man.