A View from Abroad

UK Prisoners to be Given RFID Implants?

The UK Ministry of Justice is contemplating placing RFID-esque ("machine-readable") microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders in an effort to free up more space in British jails -- see full article from The Independent here. Uses range from home detention (as a means to enforce punishment), to managing sex offenders after their release.  I have already posted about some US initiatives along similar lines.

An initially attractive idea that is really a slippery slope that could eventually endanger human rights and privacy.

We're Tagging Workers With RFID Chips?

This was one that woke me up -- a company in the US has been licensed by the federal government to insert RFID chips into people, implanting more than 2000.  And CityWatcher.com, a Cincinnati video surveillance company, requires RFID implants in some employees.

I like to make fun of California, but think that they've done well in passing a bill banning companies from requiring employees to have RFID chips surgically implanted.  There are many good uses for this technology, but willy-nilly tagging of employees is not it.  Kids, maybe.  Husbands, sure.

RFID Going Mainstream

Okay, so it's not startling news, but it's worth pointing out that we are seeing a classic, healthy adoption curve of a technology that, while it's not screamingly sexy, is just plain useful, saves a ton of time and money, and well, isn't that nice to see?

At first, RFID was implemented in industrial laundry (think hospitals) and libraries -- places where tracking items was important, but not mission critical.  Then it was picked up by companies needing to track their mass amounts of cash in transit (pretty mission critical, I'd say).  Now, RFID is entering in to the supply chain in a number of other industries including hospitals and pharmaceutical companies which have a high level of risk due to the threat of counterfeiting and the transport of sensitive biological materials, and it's notable that the FDA recently took a stand to support the inclusion of RFID in its regulatory discussions surrounding the pharmaceutical industry.  And RFID is even being adopted by airports and the less innovative courier industry.

Just today, TrueDemand, which specializes in systems that integrate with wireless RFID tagging -- not the tags or the tagging systems themselves, mind you -- announced US $8 million in second round funding, according to redherring.com (see article, here).  Outbuilding around the technology (not unlike those ridiculous iPod socks) is proof of health.

However, no one company has gone as far as to protect what really matters as Pfizer, which included RFID tags on its Viagra medication, one of its most important products.  Mission critical indeed.