Would You Know if an RFID Tag Had Been Implanted in You?

Filed in archive RFID Basics on December 2, 2006

Is it possible to implant an RFID tag in someone without them knowing about it?

Mark Roberti, the Editor of the RFID Journal, says "nope." Or, more precisely, he says it "would be difficult."

Now, why is this even a question he is asking? Well, it relates to his recent blog entry from yesterday, in which he notes how films and TV usually garble the science of RFID when they feature it in plots.

"This week, it was an episode of Law and Order that brought RFID to millions of Americans. In the episode, a husband uses a transponder he secretly embedded in his wife to track her because he suspects she's having an affair. He then puts RFID interrogators in the doorways of places she frequents. When his suspicions about her having an affair are confirmed, he kills the lover's wife and frames the lover.

Opponents of RFID will, no doubt, love this, but it has no basis in reality. First, it would be difficult to embed a tag in someone without the person knowing about it. In the show, the murderer drugs the woman before embedding the tag, but one might expect that if a woman is drugged and wakes up with swelling and a mark from an injected RFID tag, she might call the police."

Yes, hmmm. I think I would know if my husband had injected an RFID tag in me.

Not to mention the fact that it certainly would be easier to hire a private detective to follow a cheatin' spouse around and snap photographs. And to file for divorce instead of committing murder. But, hey, then it wouldn't be nearly as interesting a plot.