US issues first RFID passports

The US State Department has issued its first batch of passports with RFID chips, despite security concerns.

Ars Technica says a handful of US diplomats are now carrying the new passports that store identifying personal information along with a digitised picture of the carrier on an RFID chip.

The US government says the RFID passports are necessary to ensure the safety of US borders and have the potential of making passage through customs and immigration easier for passport holders, but the decision to mandate the use of RFID chips in US passports has resulted in heavy criticism from privacy and civil liberties advocates.

The number of Wal-Mart suppliers using RFID technology has more than tripled since the effort began, with more than 300 suppliers sending RFID-tagged goods to 500 Wal-Mart facilities, says Wal-Mart VP of information systems Carolyn Walton.

ComputerWorld says by January 2007, Wal-Mart expects that 600 of its suppliers will be using RFID technology and that the number of Wal-Mart stores capable of handling RFID-tagged items will have doubled to about 1 000.

Walton says Wal-Mart has seen a return on its RFID investment even before implementing any extensive process changes. For example, Walton says out-of-stock items carrying RFID tags are being replenished three times faster than they were before the project began.

Germany`s biggest retailer, Metro, says it plans to save 8.5 million euros a year in its German operations in coming years by using RFID technology to track inventory from suppliers.

However, Reuters reports Metro technology head Gerd Wolfram admits mass take-up is still not imminent. He says RFID still has a long way to go and will become common only in 10 to 15 years` time.

Wolfram says the cost of making an RFID tag is about 14 euro cents today and needs to go lower. Although some analysts predict increased demand as the price of RFID tags falls to the 5 euro cents mark, other say it will have to reach 1 euro cent before use becomes widespread.

China will consume 2.9 billion RFID tags by 2009 according to figures by market forecast company In-Stat.

TechPlanet reports that more than one-third of those tags will be used as human IDs in new RFID-tag-inlaid resident ID cards that are being issued by the country`s Ministry of Public Security.

The report says suppliers will watch China`s huge appetite for RFID technology closely because the country is pushing for its own RFID standard. According to InformationWeek, China plans to use its own intellectual property to build a royalty-free standard.

DHL and IBM are planning a pilot project to demonstrate how the use of RFID-tagged packages can improve tracking and security, reports UsingRFID.com

The project is part of a DHL innovation initiative, which involves IBM, Intel, Philips and SAP. The initiative is aimed at developing logistics solutions to increase the efficiency of supply chains.

The project is expected to improve shipment visibility and reduce the inbound and outbound scanning process by up to 90%.