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RFID News is reporting that RFID tagged number plates may be one of the schemes tested by the UK Government to combat the current problem of “car cloning”. It’s clear that this will cause a massive uproar on the privacy front… Active tags on every car? You’ll have to do a lot of persuading to get the public to agree to that…

…and I mean *really* scary… A Danish company is building a sniper rifle that injects unsuspecting targets with RFID chips. Enemy of the state? They’re watching…

Claire‘s been talking about this very solution for theme parks for ages. Someone had to do it I suppose. Shame it wasn’t her…

Thanks to Doug for pointing this one out… The Baja Beach Club (apparently one of Barcelona’s hottest night clubs) is subdermally chipping it’s VIP customers…

We are the first discotheque in the world to offer the VIP VeriChip. Using an [embedded] microchip, our VIPS can identify themselves and pay for their food and drinks without the need for any kind of document (ID).

Very limited details at the moment, but Nokia has announced an RFID reader kit for the 5410. It’s intended for the mobile workforce in supply chain and security applications, allowing users to interrogate RFID tags at close range and display the data on the handset. Summary here with a full article at Red Herring (reg required).

…RFID chips are *not* the mark of the beast. Which is good to know.

Apparently this proves that the US Government is RFID tagging $20 bills. Not sure this one article alone would prove it to me… Working as I do (part time at least) in the industry I can’t see the infrastructure being in place to support this. Also worth noting that the anti-theft devices in most stores are not RFID based at all, but in fact use induction. Soon to be seen on Snopes, perhaps?

Four in ten big European retailers (41 per cent) are planning RFID pilots this year.

FIFA has announced that they plan to place RFID chips in every ticket. Not that surprising – tickets are expensive and prone to forgery, chips are cheap – it’s something that a lot of RFID players have been thinking about. Still, good to see big events taking it on.

Verisign have been chosen to run the EPC directory – essentially making them the guardians of numbering and coding conventions for the new RFID standards (like the body that issues barcodes). Given their recent mucking around with the TLDs you have to question their suitability. Doesn’t bode well.