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As the marketing and distribution to the medical community of the controversial VeriChip human RFID tag begins, the chip's maker Applied Digital has made public its six-point privacy standards policy. But despite the effort, the new policy has still drawn some criticism from self-appointed consumer privacy watchdog CASPIAN and its SpyChips technology counterpart.

Applied Digital's chairman and CEO, Scott R. Silverman, recently outlined the company's new six-point privacy statement as part of his keynote address at the 2004 World ID congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Silverman began by highlighting that the company has a "duty to educate and unite rather than isolate and divide" and that RFID industry leaders must be proactive in their privacy efforts. "We must engage and, in turn, educate and unite world leaders, privacy groups and, most importantly, the world population."

The privacy policy is as follows:

1. VeriChip should be voluntary and voluntary only. No person, no employer, no government should force anyone to get "chipped".
    
2. Privacy is to be a priority at the highest levels of Applied Digital and, as such, the company promises to employ a Chief Privacy Officer who, alongside privacy experts, will be charged with addressing the day-to-day global evolution of this technology.
    
3. The company is also to immediately address privacy and patients' rights in all consumer, distributor and medical documents related to VeriChip.
    
4. VeriChip subscribers must be able have their chip removed and discontinued at any time.
    
5. Because privacy can mean different things to different people, only the VeriChip customer should designate the groups that may have access to their database information.
    
6. The company also pledged to thoughtfully, openly, and considerately engage government, privacy groups, the industry and consumers to assure that the adoption of VeriChip and RFID technology is through education and unity rather than isolation and division.

Silverman noted that Applied Digital's role in the development of RFID technology world-wide had changed since the FDA granted clearance for it to market the VeriChip for medical applications. "We recognise that since the FDA granted us clearance to market the VeriChip for medical applications, and leading medical device distributors such as Henry Schein Inc. have agreed to market the product, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that we can secure the medical records of all VeriChip subscribers."

Silverman promises that the company will work closely with all of its key constituencies, including consumers, distributors, and hospitals, to make the rapid adoption of the VeriChip as broad and as secure as possible. And with significant opportunities for VeriChip in other areas such as security, the company intends to apply the same strict standards consistently across all such target markets.

As part of Applied Digital's new privacy policy, the company has appointed Michael Krawitz to the position of Chief Privacy Officer. Mr. Krawitz currently serves as the company's executive vice president and general counsel. Krawitz will work closely with privacy experts, medical experts and community leaders to address any possible privacy and patients' rights issues.

"VeriChip's principal attribute is its ability to deliver information and verification," Krawitz said. "To ensure that this attribute is a benefit - and only a benefit - we are making privacy our priority and our commitment. It's good business and it's responsible behaviour."

For additional information:
·  Visit Applied Digital at http://www.adsx.com
·  Visit CASPIAN at http://www.spychips.com

Source: Applied Digital