RFID Tagged Viagra
In an effort to stop the amount of counterfeit Viagra
that is being sold, Pfizer has adopted strict measures. Now all packages of Viagra made by Pfizer will be tagged with RFID
technology. Pfizer hopes this will help stop the illegal sale of the popular pill prescribed for impotence.
The ID tags created by Pfizer will be a block “for criminals who might attempt to counterfeit our products”,
the company stated.
People should as pharmacists and wholesalers will be given a RFID tag
reader that will be able to send data to the Internet to Pfizer’s webpage to verify if the Viagra is authentic or not.
There have been a number of lawsuits in the past by Pfizer, against individuals selling Viagra illegally.
Apparently, there is a 29 year
old male entrepreneur Amal Graafstra living in Canada who has had RFID tags implanted into his hand.
With the use of these tags, Graafstra is able to open his front door using
one chip. Using another chip, he can even log onto his computer.
Graafstra feels that RFID technology is perfect for him, because he “does not want to be without access
to things that he needs to get into”. He feels having a chip implanted into his skin will still allow him to enter his
house even after his keys and clothes have been stolen.
The chips are quite affordable costing only $2 and interact with computers and other electronic devices.
The reader for these chips usually run about $50 which is inexpensive for this type of technology.
This is just one of many uses for humans being tagged with RFID, other uses can be seen especially in the banking and healthcare industries.
RFID is becoming very popular
in such a way that a few of the European airlines are considering using this technology to tag luggage.
In an articles appearing on cheapflights.co.uk, there is new legislation that will increase the amount people will be
compensated for if the airline loses their luggage. The cost is now £814 (1,440 USD ) which is expected to result in
£678 billion (1Tlrn USD) a year for the average amount of claims that are submitted.
Since the airlines will be paying almost triple than what they have paid
before, this will be a big incentive for many of them to start using RFID tags to keep track of the bags they handle.
It was announced today that Wal-Mart,
in cooperation with Texas Instruments’
Educational Productivity Solutions business division, has started supplying RFID tags to the cases and pallets of calculates that are being sold within its
store.
Texas Instruments is the
not the first Wal-Mart supplier to do this as many of Wal-Mart’s other suppliers have started carrying out this process
for the past year.
Last October,
Wal-Mart extended its use of RFID tags by making sure at least 500 of its stores were enabling with RFID readers.
According to a spokesperson for Texas Instruments,
the use of RFID tagging on its calculators will help ensure that enough calculators are in stock for the start and duration
of the school year.
With the federal government planning
to implement RFID tagging within passport, a RFID chip vendor On Track Innovations has been given the “green light” by the court to resume testing RFID chips, as a provider of this technology,
after the company issued a lawsuit.
The
New Jersey based company will continue were it previously left off testing the RFID chips, after the Government’s Printing
Office rejected On Track Innovations’ technology to produce the chips
In the beginning a hand full of vendors
were selected to test and produce the chips, and On Track Innovations was not one of them. However, the federal government
decided to reconsider some of the rejected vendors, and On Track Innovations was once again considered and discarded. . The
company sued the GPO in small claims court and was given permission to test their RFID chip technology.
Many analysts are still concerned that the use of
RFID enabled passports will give the government the ability to spy on its citizens.
