ID Chip May Not Be a Money Maker | NYT | 11.1.04
THE recent news that the Food and Drug Administration had approved an implantable microchip for humans has garnered a lot of attention. But that does not mean that the idea of chips as personal identity tags will ever generate profits. …
The F.D.A.’s approval is for Veri-Chip’s use in a system that would give health care workers quick access to the medical records of anyone who had been implanted with the device.
But the average ballplayer has a far better chance of hitting a home run than the average investor has of picking big winners among the thousands of new technologies that small companies like Applied Digital are trying to take to the market. In this case, investors also face the challenge of understanding Applied Digital’s intricate finances and relationships with its publicly traded subsidiaries, Digital Angel and Infotech USA. …
There is nothing modest about Applied Digital’s vision for VeriChip. The company’s executives have told investors that VeriChip is addressing markets worth hundreds of billions of dollars. VeriChip, they have said, could become the theft- and loss-proof successor to the credit card, a device to monitor the whereabouts of children and mentally impaired adults and a tool to prevent anyone other than a police officer from using a gun issued to the officer. …
So far, VeriChip’s biggest success has been in Mexico, where several hundred Mexicans have enrolled in a version of the medical application that was approved by the F.D.A. in the United States. A smaller group, which includes Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Mexico’s attorney general, were implanted with chips to control access to documents vital to the battle with drug traffickers.
Beyond the healthcare application brings the images of enucleated eyes, severed thumb, amputated hand, and implanted artificial biometric—really not too farfetched if the top law enforcement officer in Mexico is getting RFID’d.