RFID Law Blog

This is a perfect example of how RFID companies can enhance the image of their technology. Instead of allowing activists to define RFID as a risky technology that is an avenue for data theft or loss of privacy, the industry needs to talk more aggressively about the potential for this technology and similar technologies to improve people's lives - like protecting miners from future accidents. 

On September 14th, The Toronto Star reported about ActiveControl Technology, a Burlington, Ontario company that develops, among other things, RFID products.  Steve Barett, President and CEO, has been approached by US mining companies who are interested in utilizing RFID and Wi-Fi to improve safety and the effectiveness of rescue operations. According to the article:

“Barrett's system is under consideration in 46 of the 200 West Virginia mines where upgraded technology must be in place, by law, by next July."

The cost to install ranges from 200,000 to 1 million USD.

In August 2007, six miners and three rescuers died after a collapse at Utah’s Crandall Canyon Mine.  Authorities were never able to physically locate those trapped inside.

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The recent outbreak of the E. coli bacteria on bagged spinach stands as an example of an arena where RFID tracking could offer a wide range of benefits. The FDA has already suggested using RFID tags to create an "e-pedigree" of pharmaceutical drugs through the supply chain, in order to combat counterfeiting. This same principle of RFID tags on produce would make it much easier for public health officials to identify the specific source of the E. coli infestation. This would be beneficial to consumers, making it faster to track down which bags of spinach are infected; it would help retailers figure out which bags of spinach to trash and which to stock; and it would stop farmers from having to unnecessarily plow over fields of spinach in fear of possible contamination. Farmers today are losing millions of dollars destroying spinach crops that may or may not be part of the problem.

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Check out Jim Harper's interesting take on RFID usage at the World Cup.

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Fifa World Cup Soccer is in the news, and there are some interesting RFID applications:

From: http://www.electricnews.net/ffocus.html?code=9688040

Perhaps the most contentious application of technology so far has been the insertion of tiny antennae into tickets to combat touts. These Philips RFID (radio frequency identification) devices broadcast a numerical identifier of the purchaser. Privacy advocates in Germany are railing against the creation of an electronic database of personal information about fans. Fifa rules state that legally purchased tickets are only transferable between family members of the buyer, or can be exchanged between individuals in genuine cases of hardship such as due to natural catastrophes or acts of war.

However, disappointed Irish fans praying for Armageddon in order to flog their tickets may also turn to a technological solution reliant on good old free trade from the US of A. The American eBay website is probably the only major auction site permitting touts to sell tickets.
Britain outlawed scalped tickets for the event, and a German lawsuit to allow ticket reselling was upheld, although it remains unclear whether it applied to that single case or all tickets within the host nation.

Fifa officials insist every fan entering a stadium will have to swipe their chipped ticket on a reader and show corresponding ID. However, illicit ticket-buyers are banking on the impossibility of checking everyone, so US eBay is seeing bids of USD3,000 for the chipped dockets. Not surprisingly, European organisation Uefa, which regulates soccer for arguably the most "excitable" soccer countries on Earth, has lobbied hard for ticket restrictions based on security fears of violent hooligans getting into the games.

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