Concerned over public perceptions that radio-frequency identification chips are an invasion of privacy that could track an individual's buying habits, several chip makers are building a "kill" command into their upcoming RFID chips. Initial prototypes with the feature, which effectively removes a chip's ability to communicate, are expected to be available in June. The kill feature arrives as Italian clothier Benetton Group has backpedaled from a plan to embed RFID labels, based on Philips Semiconductors' I.Code chips, in millions of its garments. After the plan was made public, a backlash ensued that led to the formation of Boycott Benetton, a group that opposed the clothier's and others' planned use of RFID tags to track products through the manufacturing and supply chains. Benetton now says it is reevaluating the plan's "potential implications relating to individual privacy."
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