I. INTRODUCTION Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is gaining attention from both academics and practitioners. RFID has the potential to serve as a foundational technology for ubiquitous services where both objects and people can be automatically identified via attached RFID tags [35]. However, with the promise of RFID technology also comes issues that must be addressed for its widespread consumer acceptance. For example, the use of RFID technology by retailers and government agencies raises questions about the potential violation of personal information privacy [35] and potential threats to the security of personal data. information [40]. Motivated by these issues, this study proposes and validates a theoretical model of consumer acceptance of RFID technology. The proposed model is developed based on existing literature and provides a theoretical framework of the critical factors that determine consumer acceptance of RFID technology. A contribution of this paper involves reviewing the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) manuscript received September 1, 2006; revised June 27, 2007. The review of this manuscript was organized by the department editor A. Chakrabarti. The authors are with the Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences, College of Business Administration, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76201 USA (email: hossainm@unt.edu; prybutok@unt.edu).Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2008.919728 and contextualizing it to RFID technology. This contextualization is performed with the intention of extending the TAM to the acceptance of a specific technology: RFID technology. This study is the first in the RFID literature to use and contextualize TAM to explain a technology to the consumer... in the middle of the card. Perceived usefulness is defined as the extent to which individuals believe their work performance is improved by using a particular technology. Perceived ease of use is defined as the extent to which an individual believes that using a particular system is effortless. TAM further postulates that perceived ease of use is a predictor of perceived usefulness. Researchers have used and validated TAM for use with numerous types of technology [51]. Some studies suggest that TAM successfully predicts an individual's acceptance of various enterprise information technologies [1], [8], [12], [39]. According to Straub et al. [42], TAM can apply across technologies, people, environments and times. Recently, TAM has left its footprint in e-commerce [50], [51] and mobile services [46]. This study extends TAM to study consumer acceptance of RFID technology.