By Alison Mirabella

A student stopped at the desk today and asked: “Does our library have any books on RFID technology?”

I asked her what she needed this information for.

“I’m going for a Masters Degree in Philosophy.” She explained, “And for my class I’m researching the ethical and social aspects of RFID technology. You know, like social benefits and risks, privacy concerns, identity theft, etc. Do you have anything?”

And so, I began to search…

I first decided to block out the major concepts, since there were certainly a lot of them! By doing this, I would not only be generating search terms but I could also identify the major points of the students question to focus my search on.

So here’s a little table I jotted down…

Does our library have any books that might address the ethical and social aspects of RFID technology, as they relate to social benefits as well as the risks to privacy, such as identity theft? 

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3

Ethics, ethical, morality, moral

RFID, microchips, radio-frequency identification

Benefits, pros, positive uses, assets, assistances (some examples: finding lost items/people)

Social, interpersonal, community, human

Technology, tech, electronics

Risks, cons, dangers, hazards, concerns (some examples, privacy, identity theft)

Aspects, concepts, features, details

Privacy, identity theft, information theft, confidentiality

Since this was for a graduate level paper, I decided to use Google Scholar to search academic resources (knowing the library does not have many books/eBooks on RFID technology specifically). Google Scholar searches academic journals and databases to find credible, peer-reviewed resources. Since I have never used it , I was curious to see how it worked.

Selecting terms from concept blocking table, I searched: “RFID technology” AND “ethics” AND “privacy”.

1,780 results is quite a lot, so I decided to do some limiting by removing the patents/citations.

Slightly better! Then I evaluated the resources…

1. This first result is a good primer of RFID technology, and has an entire section on ethical/privacy concerns. Very relevant! (Requires subscription)2. This one is very relevant and directly addresses privacy concerns. (Requires subscription)

3. This result discusses application (potential benefits) and privacy. (Requires subscription)

4. Very relevant, since it discusses the application/future of RFID technology. (Requires subscription)

5. Extremely relevant since it focuses on the privacy aspects of the original query.(Requires subscription)

6. Great resource! This is right on target since it addresses both ethics and privacy concerns. (Requires subscription)

7. This is great because it discuss consumerconcerns about RFID technology. (Requires subscription)

8. This one is still relevant, but isn’t directly about RFID technology. (Requires subscription)

9. This one is relevant because it discusses “nano-technology” (ie “micro-chipping”)and privacy concerns. (Requires subscription)

10. Here’s the first book result! However, it only has a small section of RFID technology. (It is searchable for free, though!)

11. Might be relevant, but it leadsto a broken link, so it’s difficult to tell! (Requires subscription)

12. This is absolutely relevant since the author addresses serious privacy concerns. (Requires subscription)13. Might be relevant, but the page

doesn’t offer an abstract. (Requiressubscription)

14. Absolutely relevant, directly addressing privacy and even other risks. (Requires subscription)

15. This article seems to have a wholesection dedicated to privacy and otherconcerns! (Requires subscription)

16. This one seems relevant, since it discusses theinteraction between RFID technology and thepublic, so it’s likely to include benefits/concerns.(Requires subscription)

17. This article is even entitled “ethical challenges for radio frequency identification”. (Requires subscription)

18. The description implies RFID technology is at least addressed. (Requires subscription)

19. This one is very relevant. According to the abstract, it explores the “socio-ethical” implications of RFID technology. (Requires subscription)

20. The article, being titled “RFID 101” is bound to at least touch upon ethical concerns and potential benefits. (Requires subscription)

21. This article is more focused on “informationalprivacy”, as opposed to RFID problems specifically.Might not be very relevant (ironically, it’s one of thefew resources available without a subscription.

22. Since it is entitled “RFID and Privacy” it is most likely relevant. (Requires subscription)

23. This is more about examining consumer’s preceptions than the ethical concerns. (Requires subscription)

24. This more about application. Most likely not very relevant to this particular topic.(Requires subscription)

25. Very relevant! It even offer guideline suggestions as a solution.(Requires subscriptions)

In the end, Google Scholar pulled up some extremely relevant resources that pertained to the question. However, most of these required a subscription to various databases to access the full text. Some colleges may provide these subscriptions and others may not, though these articles could probably be found in other academic databases, or the journals could be received through an ILL. Still, the student received some good resources!

Thanks for reading!

Credits:• The “Google-style” text was

generated at http://neswork.com/logo-generator/google-font

• The images were from Pixabay, which host copyright free images. Here is the link to both pictures:– http://pixabay.com/en/book-bored-colleg

e-education-15584/– http://pixabay.com/en/beautiful-business

-computer-female-15728/