Organizers of the world’s largest sporting event said tickets will be issued with smart RF tags that exchange data with a reader via a wireless loop to override the error-prone manual checks currently in place at stadiums.
FIFA officials said the information stored on an RFID chip embedded within paper match tickets will include data about games and seating.
However, they neither confirmed nor denied whether personal information would be included, raising once again the contentious issue of data privacy.
FIFA might see RFID as a new weapon for countering football hooliganism through its ability to regulate ticket sales and track the movement of specific spectators who may be suspected of being troublemakers, but many are wary about the impact of the technology on personal consumer data privacy.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
