Radio Frequency ID (H 8027, S 2113)

In two previous years, the Governor had vetoed ACLU legislation that restricted the state and municipalities from using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology on students, employees or clients. Originally developed to track cattle and commerce, RFID technology allows a person’s identity and movement to be monitored electronically. Earlier this year, the Middletown school district began placing RFID chips on the backpacks of elementary school children, purportedly to make sure they got on the right school bus. Because the Governor’s previous veto messages had complained about the breadth of the bill, and particularly its limitations on employee monitoring, this year the legislative sponsors limited the bill to apply to students only. (The bill also addressed RFID use in E-ZPass toll payment systems by limiting public access to the information gathered by those systems.) Nonetheless, the Governor still used his veto pen on the legislation, this time claiming RFID could somehow be helpful to schools in the event of a natural disaster, a Columbine incident or terrorist attack.