Four out of 10 adults (41 percent) say they know about radio frequency identification technology (RFID)--up from 28 percent last September, thanks largely to the Internet, according to a new survey of
8,500 adults conducted by BIGresearch and Artafact. The report, unveiled Wednesday, revealed that 23 percent of consumers said they learned about RFID from the Web--which rivals the 26 percent who
found out about it from television and radio news. The study also showed that about two-thirds of consumers (68 percent) are concerned that the technology will be used for purposes other than product
tracking.
RFID technology, which has been around since the 1940s, incorporates a small tag into objects that can collect and store data, which can then be received by a reader. The
technology often is envisioned as a replacement for bar codes; many marketers see its potential for collecting tracking data. --S.G.
