Origins

• Predecessors of RFI systems include military devices used for espionage purposes and to streamline military operations. In recent years, RFI devices have assumed a miniature size, allowing them to be implanted in humans.
  
  

Privacy Concerns

• While policymakers and social commentators, such as Dr. Michael G Michael of the University of Wollongong's School of Information Systems and Technology, assert that RFI technology will be commonplace in coming decades, human rights advocates have expressed alarm over potential abuses of such technology.
  
  

Benefits

• Although RFI devices are feared as intrusive by their critics, they can actually serve lifesaving functions. For example, these devices can be used by elderly out-patients who are vulnerable to injury in a domestic setting. They can also protect common citizens from harm if they are used within prison settings to track the motion of prisoners.
  
  

Devices

• Despite the fact that RFI devices are often envisioned as implantable chips that bear more a product of science fiction than they are of reality, comparably more discreet RFI devices exist. They are also available for use in the form of bracelets or even as rings. While implantable versions of RFI devices do indeed exist, they are rarely used in involuntary situations.
  
  

Implementation

• RFI devices have been implemented in small trials around the world, in European countries, in Australia and even within the United States. They have not yet been widely implemented, though policy makers have discussed their potential for wide-scale use.