Posted on 02/12/2006 4:28:09 PM PST by wagglebee
An Ohio company has embedded silicon chips in two of its employees - the first known case in which US workers have been “tagged” electronically as a way of identifying them.
CityWatcher.com, a private video surveillance company, said it was testing the technology as a way of controlling access to a room where it holds security video footage for government agencies and the police.
Embedding slivers of silicon in workers is likely to add to the controversy over RFID technology, widely seen as one of the next big growth industries.
RFID chips – inexpensive radio transmitters that give off a unique identifying signal – have been implanted in pets or attached to goods so they can be tracked in transit.
“There are very serious privacy and civil liberty issues of having people permanently numbered,” said Liz McIntyre, who campaigns against the use of identification technology.
But Sean Darks, chief executive of CityWatcher, said the glass-encased chips were like identity cards. They are planted in the upper right arm of the recipient, and “read” by a device similar to a cardreader.
“There’s nothing pulsing or sending out a signal,” said Mr Darks, who has had a chip in his own arm. “It’s not a GPS chip. My wife can’t tell where I am.”
The technology’s defenders say it is acceptable as long as it is not compulsory. But critics say any implanted device could be used to track the “wearer” without their knowledge.
VeriChip – the US company that made the devices and claims to have the only chips that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration – said the implants were designed primarily for medical purposes.
So far around 70 people in the US have had the implants, the company said.
Good One
Too scary..Besides , some kid will figure out a way to change what the chip tells us( probably in a day or two ) and post it on the internet.
I guess you should go look up project Echelon. They don't have too much on their plate.
Too close to the heart .
Considering the amount of armed Christians, you'd have a bloody revolution on hand soon after they tried this.
115g
185g
55g
123g
147g
You'll be OK as long as you make sure not to buy them in your size.
ick.
"Law-abiding US Citizens have chip. Illegals and terrorists don't. Police scan. Chip = good person. No chip = bad person.
Better?"
can you think of any historical parellels where being tagged and identified by your lawful government turned out to be a not-so-good thing down the road?
BTW when you you getting your implant so everyone will know you are a legal US citizen?
can i get the Winston Smith model with the small corner not covered due to architecural issues?
Give me another option.
If someone had described the political and police enviroment, gestapo included, from ,say 1937, to german citizens (gentile or jewish) in 1913, do you think ANY of them would have believed it possible? They would have said you were crazy, an alarmist, and that they were civilized.
If you do not see how an future no-so-friendly state could use this technology to create repression on a scale probably only imagined now in north korea, then perhaps others reading my post will.
It seems to me if you are a law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide there is no basis to object to registration of your law-abiding firearms.
Suppose you have this chip you support implanted and THEN they pass a gun registration law? You then become a criminal if you do not register the guns, and thus a valid target for this chip system to apprehend, along with the various other unsavory types you list. You should assume old 4437's are being databased, you know, and the NICS record-retention is presumably permanent.
i wonder if north korea will ever have enough money to actually do this themselves. It is the logical extension of their police state.
If you have read the Plan of Man novels (I think by pohl?) this would prevent having to sign in manually each time you change location - the planning computer would track you transparently.
"Logically, to be effective, the program would have to cooerce compliance with forceful implantation (and in an area sensitive enough to deter tampering, such as in the brain)."
ok you blew it, trolling is best when not so sublime...
I hope they plan for the possibility, nay probability in time, that the taggee will get killed and robbed of his tag.
Currently the greatest work being done to institute Radio Frequency Id (RFID spychips) is being done by companies who want to track our product usage even into our homes. Conveniently it also tracks what we do, where we travel, what we eat, buy, etc. The book exposes some Orwellian patents for tracking us (NOT THEM) for all the BAD reasons. Try Gillette, Walmart, Proctor & Gamble, J&J, Circuit City, toll road readers, cell phones, Well, you'll have to read for yourself...
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