Posted on 02/26/2002 6:51:46 PM PST by marxwas a loser
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By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Florida technology company is poised to ask the government for permission to market a first-ever computer ID chip that could be embedded beneath a person's skin.
For airports, nuclear power plants and other high security facilities, the immediate benefits could be a closer-to-foolproof security system. But privacy advocates warn the chip could lead to encroachments on civil liberties.
The implant technology is another case of science fiction evolving into fact. Those who have long advanced the idea of implant chips say it could someday mean no more easy-to-counterfeit ID cards nor dozing security guards.
Just a computer chip - about the size of a grain of rice - that would be difficult to remove and tough to mimic.
Other uses of the technology on the horizon, from an added device that would allow satellite tracking of an individual's every movement to the storage of sensitive data like medical records, are already attracting interest across the globe for tasks like foiling kidnappings or assisting paramedics.
Applied Digital Solutions' new ``VeriChip'' is another sign that Sept. 11 has catapulted the science of security into a realm with uncharted possibilities - and also new fears for privacy.
``The problem is that you always have to think about what the device will be used for tomorrow,'' said Lee Tien, a senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group.
``It's what we call function creep. At first a device is used for applications we all agree are good but then it slowly is used for more than it was intended,'' he said.
Applied Digital, based in Palm Beach, Fla., says it will soon begin the process of getting Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) approval for the device, and intends to limit its marketing to companies that ensure its human use is voluntary.
``The line in the sand that we draw is that the use of the VeriChip would always be voluntarily,'' said Keith Bolton, chief technology officer and a vice president at Applied Digital. ``We would never provide it to a company that intended to coerce people to use it.''
More than a decade ago, Applied bought a competing firm, Destron Fearing, which had been making chips implanted in animals for several years. Those chips were mainly bought by animal owners wanting to provide another way for pound workers to identify a lost pet.
Chips for humans aren't that much different.
But the company was hesitant to market them for people because of ethical questions. The devastation of Sept. 11 solidified the company's resolve to market the human chip and brought about a new sensibility about the possible interest.
``It's a sad time ... when people have to wonder whether it's safe in their own country,'' Bolton said.
The makers of the chip also foresee it being used to help emergency workers diagnose a lost Alzheimer's patient or access an unconscious patient's medical history.
Getting the implant would go something like this:
A person or company buys the chip from Applied Digital for about $200 and the company encodes it with the desired information. The person seeking the implant takes the tiny device - about the size of a grain of rice, to their doctor, who can insert it with a large needle device.
The doctor monitors the device for several weeks to make sure it doesn't move and that no infection develops.
The device has no power supply, rather it contains a millimeter-long magnetic coil that is activated when a scanning device is run across the skin above it. A tiny transmitter on the chip sends out the data.
Without a scanner, the chip cannot be read. Applied Digital plans to give away chip readers to hospitals and ambulance companies, in the hopes they'll become standard equipment.
The chip has drawn attention from several religious groups.
Theologian and author Terry Cook said he worries the identification chip could be the ``mark of the beast,'' an identifying mark that all people will be forced to wear just before the end times, according to the Bible.
Applied Digital has consulted theologians and appeared on the religious television program the ``700 Club'' to assure viewers the chip didn't fit the biblical description of the mark because it is under the skin and hidden from view.
Even with the privacy and religious concerns, some are already eager to use the product.
Jeff Jacobs in Coral Springs, Florida has contacted the company in hopes of becoming the first person to purchase the chip.
Jacobs suffers from a number of serious allergies and wants to make sure medical personnel can diagnose him.
``They would know who to contact, they would know what medications I'm on, and it's quite a few,'' he said. ``They would know what I'm allergic to, what kind of operations I've had and where there might be problems.''
Applied Digital says technology to let the chip to be used for tracking is already well under development.
Eight Latin American companies have contacted Applied Digital and have openly encouraged the company to pursue the internal tracking devices. In some countries, kidnapping has become an epidemic that limits tourism and business
History repeats itself in cycles, each time the cycle gets worse than the one before it.
I don't understand how they are good devices for identifying people. All you have to do in order to impersonate someone is kill them, locate their chip, remove it, and inject it into yourself. It doesn't look like there is any mechanism to self-destruct the device if it senses that it is being removed from the "original owner". It is also easy to locate, since it always responds to the scanner.
Like an Angel, aye? A digital Angel?
Repeat after me:
I Trust in Government!
I Trust in Government!
I Trust in Government!
I Trust in Government!
Now, don't you feel better already? Yes, yes, now you are getting right. Say it one more time....I trust in Government....Now, hold out your hand, and let us place your new identifier chip in your right hand......
I saw a couple of these guys on TV (O'Reilly, I think) not too long ago. According to them, these chips are already being marketed in Europe.
I seriously doubt that these are that "mark", but they are certainly a forerunner.
My guess is that these will have limited use for a while--I doubt they can hold enough information yet; and they certainly aren't secure....
As for selling them to companies, we have a very mobile workforce. The expense of having them implanted/removed (and the risk of possible lawsuits from infections, etc.) may make them cost prohibitive. I'm also curious to know how information would be added, deleted, and updated.
Between Christains being on guard for the mark of the beast, companies looking for ways to cut costs, and the greenies worrying about brain cancer from cell phones, I don't think they are going to find a big market in the immediate future.
Just my 2 cents :)
With a few keystrokes the Jewish population and all of his enemies (webmasters and press) would have been isolated.
I totally disagree with the "NEVER" someone wrote. I've heard that so many times it makes me sick. America has given up tons of its freedoms since 1991 and it'll give up a lot more.
We are only 50-60% of the country and when the media gets behind this they'll make every teenager in America think its gold. Hell -- you might not be able to play XBOX2 or PS3 without one. "DADDY! GET ME A CHIP! GET ME A CHIP!! MY FRIENDS HAVE CHIPS!"
:-)
And the DNC pushed for the national I.D. card, too, didn't they?
Shalom,
DrMike
Here in an ecologically balanced world, mankind lives only for pleasure, freed by the servo-mechanisms which provide everything. There's just one catch. Life must end at thirty unless reborn in the fiery ritual of carousel."
Note that it's on the LEFT hand and recall that "Sanctuary" was in Washington, DC !!
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