The states have been busy of late enacting laws that address a broad spectrum of security protections, from outlawing radio frequency identification (RFID) tag tracking to requiring organizations to encrypt sensitive data whether it is stored on a computer or sent over the Internet. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week approved a bill that would make it illegal to secretly scan the data encoded on unsecured RFID chips for the purposes of tracking, identity theft or counterfeiting the devices. RFID tags are tiny chips that are now commonly embedded into many retail products, student IDs, drivers’ licenses, passports and medical ID cards. Most RFID tags are “passive,” in that they have no internal power supply and are designed to be read from a few inches away, but researchers have shown that even passive tags can be read from more than 30 feet with special equipment. However, for the second year