Press coverage of implanted chips distorted?

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Saturday, May 11, 2002 | By Sherrie Gossett

[JohnHuang2]

As "Good Morning America," "Inside Edition," and "The CBS Evening News" televise the much-hyped "chipping" of eight individuals starting today, Lee Tien, the senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is speaking out passionately about what many experts believe are serious threats posed by implanting chips in humans – threats he says are not being adequately portrayed by the major media.

Tien has been in high demand as a commentator on the issue. And the New York City press office of the American Civil Liberties Union, which once called the chip "an outrage" and "unconstitutional," is currently refusing to comment on the chips, referring all inquiries to Tien or David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Despite the numerous requests for comments, Tien told WND that the media have not effectively communicated his stance on the matter: "I've been used as part of their press campaign – as a token privacy person. It's really insulting."

When the 'chips were down' ...

As WorldNetDaily reported previously, "Digital Angel," has been described by company communications as an implantable microchip that, once inserted into a human, can be tracked by GPS and the information then relayed wirelessly to the Internet, where an individual's location, movements and vital signs can be stored in a database for future reference. The chip, along with another non-trackable version (the VeriChip) was developed by the NASDAQ-traded, Palm Beach, Fla., company, Applied Digital Solutions.

ADS tried unsuccessfully to market the implantable tracking chip in 1999 and 2000. The company hit bumpy ground though, with protests coming from civil liberties advocates, libertarians, electronic freedom activists, radical protest organizations, anarchists and religious groups.

Complicating matters was a failed foray into presidential-year politics. WND has reported on an unconsummated partnership between ADS and the Clinton-Gore administration, pushed by then-Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta just days before the presidential election. The company soon entered a dramatic financial freefall, according to the South Florida Business Journal. Whereas in 2000 shares were $18, by November of the following year they traded at 53 cents. In August of 2001, shares hit an all-time low of 16 cents. The company lost millions and was threatened with delisting by NASDAQ.

Following Sept. 11, however, the company found its golden opportunity to reintroduce the chip, first in its non-tracking form (the VeriChip). An announcement of "phase two" of the company’s strategy is likely to ride on the heels of today's much-publicized implantation event.

WND reported that ADS stated in its promotional materials and website that the sophisticated Digital Angel tracking chip was intended to be implanted in human beings, tapping into an estimated $100 billion worldwide market.

ADS chairman and CEO Richard J. Sullivan answered privacy-advocate critics at a private unveiling of the Digital Angel prototype in October 2000,

"And let me be very clear on one important point," he said. "The potential marketplace I'm talking about is for an attachable device … something worn on the outside … close to the skin. ... We're not planning on or even considering any other application at this time. Only external uses! All of our energy … all of our focus … all of our effort is in this direction. Period. Any other approach or suggestion is purely hypothetical speculation at this time."

Sullivan delivered this statement a week after his website had displayed extensive information about development of the chip for human implantation, and after McKinsey & Co. consultants had prepared a marketing projection for a whopping $70 billion market in the U.S.

Major media 'ignorant' and 'remiss'

Tien is speaking out because he believes the media are doing a poor job of reporting the threats that the chip can propose to individual rights, as well as the technical security weaknesses inherent in the Digital Angel technology delivery system.

"The impression I'm getting is that the implantation thing has a 'gee-whiz' factor that the media seems to like," Tien told WND. "But ever since Sept. 11, reporters have been less aggressive about challenging the privacy implications of the technologies or the practices."

"The media give an obligatory nod to civil liberties and privacy issues," Tien explains, "but the reports lack objective, educated analysis, resulting in them being 'one-sided.' There are few reporters interested in drilling into the real problems."

'Frog in the pot' marketing

Tien is especially concerned over involuntary uses of the chip and the company's intentional strategy to "handle" the public and media, so they are gradually accepting of a more dangerous form of the chip – the GPS-tracked "Digital Angel" chip.

CEO Sullivan has suggested that all foreigners entering the U.S. should be injected with the company’s chips, which he said should replace green cards. While ADS has repeatedly stated that they are only pursuing voluntary applications of the chips, their proposed uses clearly indicate otherwise. The stunning array of potential uses ADS is pushing aggressively include the implantation of prisoners, parolees, people under house arrest, children, the elderly, airport workers, nuclear power plant workers, gun owners and computer users (as a form of logon ID).

The company also envisions the implanted chips creating a "cashless society," being used instead of ATM and credit cards. ADS also wants to control all of the databases for all uses of the chips.

"My take on it," Tien explains, "has always been that the whole idea of forcing people to be tracked against their will is absolutely repugnant."

"They're doing the frog in the water trick – getting the memo out that this is voluntary, making it hard for civil liberty advocates to counter it," Tien explains. "But no matter what great uses are promised by the company, it is just part of an overall, larger trend – a movement toward the much bigger location tracking development of the chip."

Tien also stresses that once the chip is "colonized" into the prison system, it will be even harder to prevent involuntary uses from spreading to other areas of society.

"We're very concerned about this habituating of the public. The idea is, 'Oh well, it's here, so get over it. It must not be so bad.' But once they get it in limited form, the jump to tracking form is easier for the company.”

Security or hype?

Regarding the development of the chips, especially the Digital Angel tracking chip, Tien remarks: "These people [Applied Digital Solutions] have no idea whatsoever about what real security means. I spoke to their CTO, Dr. Keith Bolton. His response was 'We have this proprietary technology' – a meaningless comment."

Applied Digital Solutions contends it spent $40 million dollars on proprietary mixed-media encryption technology, and that the system security, which relies on Secure Socket Layers (SSL), won't be "spoofed." Digital Angel location information is accessed by "authorized individuals" by entering a password into an Internet site. But, according to Tien, the chip delivery system is vulnerable to "spoofing" and fraught with security risks.

"The low-end VeriChip is probably quite significantly insecure, but because of its limited capacity, the actual risk is not great."

However, Tien warns, it would be very different with Digital Angel: "People have the impression that only 'authorized' people will see their personal information. But all sorts of people will eventually see it."

Compounding the problem, Tien says, are existing vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. In March of this year, Digital Angel Corporation signed an agreement with Microsoft MapPoint in order to strengthen its worldwide GPS mapping capabilities.

"The threat is not just to the people implanted with it, but also for those people who hang out with them. They will all be part of a large surveillance system," Tien maintained.

Chilling misuses outlined

Raising further technical concerns, Tien asked, "How do you know what information they've put on the chip? They don't suggest that it's externally programmable, but what if it is now or in the future?"

Tien illustrated his point: "Here I am with this chip. I've got a connection. Is it read-only or writable? And if something is wirelessly written to it, what are they saying?" Referring to the fact that wireless networks and radio frequency data transmission packets are notoriously easy to "hijack," Tien asks,"Who are they saying I am? How hard is it for someone to send a transmission with information identical to my chip?"

Tien argues that such hacking and "spoofing" of the system could be used, for example, to frame someone by falsely placing their identification chip information into a computer and linking the ID number with a crime scene location. "It's equivalent to saying, 'Here's your DNA at this crime scene. Now prove you weren't there,'" said Tien.

Nabbing cyberpunks?

Nathan Cochrane of The Age newspaper in Australia has also researched and explored various potential misuses of the chip. In an e-mail sent to Declan McCullagh, Washington bureau chief for Wired magazine, Cochrane summed up a potential result of using the implanted tracking chip as a logon identification system, as advocated by ADS: "Can you imagine a tracking system that could tell when you had swapped songs over Napster, then dobbing you in to the local police, complete with your location accurate to within a few meters?"

The observation parallels similar developments of other electronic identification systems, like electronic toll booth passes, first marketed as a "convenience" item, but later used to issue speeding tickets to drivers who used the technology.

Cyberspace vulnerabilities critical

During congressional testimony earlier in the year, United States cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke pointed out that when corporate computer systems are hacked into, it is seldom reported to the government. This is because after such information is reported, it could then be retrieved by researchers and reporters by using the Freedom of Information Act. So corporations typically avoid reporting serious security breaches for fear of the financial consequences that diminished consumer trust could bring.

Clarke testified before Congress that there never has been a "secure" Internet product, and that terrorists could have hacked into government systems leaving "back doors" through which they could enter later. Prior embarrassing security breaches of prominent government websites such as NASA, the Pentagon and the CIA seem to say to privacy advocates, "If the government is struggling to secure its IT systems, just how secure are commercial networks?"

Tien believes that the cyber czar's comments serve to highlight potential areas of concern for those considering allowing companies like ADS to collect and control extremely sensitive information.

Location, location, location

Legal questions arise concerning the vacuum of legal protection of location-based electronic information. As politicians, corporate interests and privacy advocates are still wrestling over issues of who gets to see cell phone location information, the same issues apply to tracking chips. The question is, who will win access to your movement and location information? Your wife's divorce attorney? Your political rival? News reporters? Corporate lawyers? Advertising firms? Government? And who would desire to steal your location information records?

Would the monetary and power value of such personal information give rise to a "digital mafia," buying and selling your location and movement information for profit? In a world where there is mass implantation of tracking chips as a form of ID, one can only imagine the value of obtaining where a political rival was on a given night, with whom, at what hotel, and for how long? And in the cashless society advocated by ADS, what did they buy? The bio-sensor information transmitted and stored by the chips would even tell you how hard their hearts were beating and to what degree their skin temperature rose.

Alternatives to implantation

For medical monitoring, implanting devices in the body is just not necessary, Tien contends. Other companies like "Lifeshirt" of Miami have developed products that monitor vital signs just like ADS chips do, but non-invasively. And as far as tamper-proof identification goes, Tien argues that the body by itself contains unique identifying characteristics that can be effectively confirmed by biometric technologies. These characteristics include fingerprints, irises, DNA and facial angles. As for tracking, Tien points out that using a bracelet in situations where such tracking is unavoidable, is sufficient, and that implantation just isn’t a logical necessity in most civilian situations.

"We don’t like it. We're very concerned. And we hope this thing falls apart," Tien concluded.

[billbears]

The stunning array of potential uses ADS is pushing aggressively include the implantation of prisoners, parolees, people under house arrest, children, the elderly, airport workers, nuclear power plant workers, gun owners and computer users (as a form of logon ID).

The way this is being presented, one day you might not have a choice. Well, you'll have a choice but be ostracized by your community and you'll have to go live with the outcasts. I have a feeling, the way it's being presented by the media, there won't be many of us, but there will be some of us.

But it's to protect our freedoms!! they say. Would someone please explain to me, if the national government knows where you are all the time, and what you're doing (with the camera surveillance I imagine that's not far off), exactly how are we free again? Oh, I forgot, we're safe!!

And that just does loads for me < /sarcasm>

[Judith Anne]

Well, when there are a bunch of folk who have nothing left to lose, anymore, I'll be among 'em. ;-D Years ago, I made up my mind. I'm ready for the consequences, and I think I understand what they really are, if ADS has its way. God have mercy.

[StriperSniper]

I would go hide out in a cave before I'd let these MFers implant ANYTHING in me.

That is only after I take a few of them out first. ;-)

[monkeyshine]

I will do what I can to ensure that it remains voluntary. I am wholly opposed to mandatory tracking devices. Although, the gov could institute thumbprint ID's at any time (I would oppose that too) at airports, toll roads, etc (and to a large extent they have!). But, you can't stop progress. Someone has developed this chip. That's good for human progress. Some good can come from the concept. Tracking people so the gov can watch us is not the ideal use for such a chip, and I can't see much good coming from it. Helping people live better, longer lives is a good use for it.

[Hard Case]

An implantable tracking chip is not possible. Another distortion from press coverage. First, the chip would require an external antenna. A chip will not be able to receive a signal through the body at GPS frequencies. A body is essentially saltwater. High frequncies simply do not go through it because of the electromagnetic attentuation factor through a conductor called the skin effect. Assuming this physical limitation doesn't exist or that you do have an external antenna then you still have to deal with transmitting the return signal. For a low power transmitter you will need a transceiver about every 3 to 5 feet. If you want to transmit out to say a mile, you are looking at something like a cellphone battery for only a few hours of usable time. Any further and you will need to start weight training so you can carry lead acid batteries. It would also be useless in remote locations.

Sub-dermal chip tracking is science fiction.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Science Fiction comes alive.

I would suppose one of Ray Bradbury's books would have this in it!

To find all articles tagged or indexed using tech_index

Click here: tech_index

[MadRobotArtist]

Those of us are choosing not to get implanted will end up being labeled as terrorists, or deviants of some kind. What you'll have to watch out for is some doctor giving you an immunization, and if you don't already have the chip, he'll give you one without your permission, or refuse to immunize you until you acquiesce, and accept it. I for one am never going to be innoculated with a chip.

The only good reason I can think of for this technology, is to protect people from alien abductions like an Anti-Theft Device.

The only thing this will be used for, will be to take away your rights, freedoms, and your money. It will be used to control your life, your travel, and who you are seen with. There will be a high profile kidnapping story, and the byline will be it could have been prevented by having a chip implanted.

There will be more cases of identity fraud, and the media and government will demand that people start to use the chip to protect their identity. This will also lead to the end of paper currency, as Identity Fraud, and Currency counterfeiting will be exposed more to us as dangerous. People will give up their freedoms one at a time because they'll be brainwashed into thinking it will be for their own good. I say to all of those sheep out there just waiting to be taken to the slaughter, enjoy your safety while it lasts, because it will be fleeting.

There are so many idiots who think that digital technologies are the answer, when in fact they are more of a problem. My wife just found out that since 1978 the IRS and the Social Security Administration had her birthday confused with another tax payer. Isn't that nice? Not only did this error screw up her tax refund, but, her student loan debt tripled. She's been told that regardless of their mistake, the only thing that's going to get fixed is her birthdate. The money that someone else got for education, and her social security payments is gone.

You see, there's a problem with government and technology. Neither one is worth a damn when really large. The fact that we have to live with their mistake is not only an insult, but a grevious injury. If there is one thing I'd like to see happen to our nation, it would be that our government would shrink, and become less intrusive in our lives. I'd also like it very much if our leaders would start to represent our interests instead of their own.

That of course will never happen, since Larry Ellison, coupled with Digital Angel has seen fit to not only do all of the work necessary to create a nation wide database on everyone, but helped to develop the chip technology for human use in the first place. You see, there are dangerous people in the world, and none of them have been truly vilified the way they should be. When one person controls your life, in every facet, they are your oppressor. This is only yet another form of oppression.

Throw out your credit cards. Get rid of your cellphones, kiss your cable goodbye, as well as your internet access. Throw it all away, and do all of your business in person. Pay cash for everything when you can. Don't be afraid of government, that's how they get their power. I hate what our nation is becoming, and it's becoming this police state because of true, unparalleled idiocy. I hope someday the stupid are rounded up like cattle, and hauled away, to let the intelligent people who are free thinkers live in peace.

[MarkWar]

>I hope someday the stupid are rounded up like cattle, and hauled away, to let the intelligent people who are free thinkers live in peace.

Here's a site you may enjoy. An economics professor has done some thinking on stupidity and come up with some interesting thoughts: "THE BASIC LAWS OF HUMAN STUPIDITY," by Carlo M. Cipolla

Mark W.

[Judith Anne]

I've lived long enough to have some practice in living with labels--"they" can call me whatever "they" want. ;-D And do whatever "they" want to me. I have no desire to live forever, except in Heaven.

[Phil V.]

***another article to index, if you would be so kind***

[Jay W]

Well, in all fairness, CBS did show a few quotes from one of the guy's who was implanted.

If I'm not mistaken, the buck-toothed implant recipient said something like,

"Meesa no think bad chip implant. Meesa think it give safety good!"

[NYer]

By September, you can be assured that 9/11 will become the rallying cry for justifying the implantation of angel chips in everyone (public servants being the first candidates). This will facilitate the tracking of military, police, firefighters, emt's, etc. Within 10 years, you can be assured that infants will be implanted at birth ... bank on it. No chip? No birth certificate!

Insidious, isn't it!

[It'salmosttolate]

Could this be the Mark of the Beast
The incredable Tesatamony by Carl Sanders

Some excerpts.....

Carl Sanders sat in 17 New World Order meetings with heads of state officials such as Henry Kissinger and Bob Gates of the CIA to discuss plans on how to bring about this One World System. The government commissioned Carl Sanders to design a biochip for identifying and controlling the peoples of the world- a biochip that could be inserted under the skin with a hypodermic needle (a quick/convenient method that would be gradually accepted by society).

Carl Sanders, with a team of engineers behind him, with U.S. grant monies supplied by our tax dollars, took on this project and designed a biochip which is powered by a lithium battery rechargeable through the temperature changes in our skin. Without the knowledge of the Bible (Bro. Sanders was not a Christian at the time), these engineers spent one and half million dollars doing research on the best and most convenient place to have the biochip inserted. Guess what? These researchers found that the back of the hand is not just the most convenient place but is also the only viable place for rapid, consistent temperature changes in the skin to recharge the lithium battery. The biochip is approximately 7mm in length, .75 mm in diameter, about the size of a grain of rice. It is capable of storing pages upon pages of information about you. All your general history, work history, crime record, health history and financial data can be stored on this chip.

These biochip implants are designed to become our passports, driver's licenses, health care cards, social security cards, etc. In other words, they will become our UNIVERSAL ID and ATM /DEBIT CHIPS all in one. One World, One Biochip. Presently, AT&T advertises it's new contactless, electronic smart card as, "One World. One Card." Simply pass your right hand over a radio-frequency (RFID) scanner and you will be identified instantaneously and processed automatically wherever you are. A radio wave will pass through the skin of your hand, activate your ID transponder, and transmit your unique ID number back outside the skin to the scanner. This entire process of identification will require only about two seconds. Computers in the new, digitized, fiber-optical Information Superhighway infrastructure will do the rest. It looks like that in the very near future, all buying and selling will be controlled. Scan your hand, and debit your account. How wonderful...

Bro. Sanders believes that this biochip which he regretfully help design may be the "mark" spoken about in Revelation 13:15-17. The original Greek word for "mark" is "charagma" which means a "scratch or etching, i.e., a stamp or badge of servitude, a mark" . It is also interesting to note that the number 666 is actually a word in the original Greek. The word is "Chi Xi Stigma", the first part denoting the number 666 and the last part "stigma" meaning "to stick or prick, a mark incised or punched (for recognition of ownership)". Look it up yourself, it's exactly what it means! In light of these definitions, implantable biochips could very well be the physical "mark" spoken of in the book of Revelation!

Tattoos and different forms of electronic medium under the skin has been seriously considered to make this system foolproof. But the wonder boy of choice is the biochip. It's easy to manufacture, has a variety of applications, can be implanted quite quickly and conveniently- as quick as a flu shot!

Also in 1974, a strange, new mark began appearing on products- UPC barcode. Virtually every product is now marked with the familiar UPC barcode. Interestingly enough, did you know that there are three embedded numbers on every UPC barcode? What are the three hidden numbers? Wouldn't you know- 666!

All of the marks, or bars are associated with numbers at the bottom, except the marks at the first, middle, and end. The marks for the number "6" are "||". And these marks are the same marks at the first, in the middle and at the end of every barcode! The number "666" is hidden in every UPC bar code!

(If you don't believe it, get a bar code and look at it!.) Something else has mysterious appeared. In the last few years, some UPC codes have appeared with additional boxes underneath the bar code. Beside the boxes are 2 letters - the letter F and the letter H! Could they stand for forehead or hand? Am I paranoid or is someone following me?

[Governor StrangeReno]

The day they legislate it Im off to the mountains

[It'salmosttolate]

Mark.13

1.[14] But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not,
(let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

[hunter112]

As good as some of the uses for this sound (like tracking child molesters), I'm reminded of the fact that what started off as a secondary violation for seatbelt usage (they can't pull you over for it, but can add it on to any other existing violation) has now gone to a primary violation here in Washington state. A bit strange that the ACLU has backed off of this "Brave New World" techno-threat, but I'm sure there are categories of people (like gun owners) they'd love to see it implanted in.

Even if its use as a criminal enforcement tool is declared unconstitutional, its use as a condition of employment or qualification for living in a certain neighborhood is possible under contract law. This is the biggest threat to law-abiding citizens.

The social security number started out as a simple means of identifying payments into a questionable tax scheme, now its the way your identity can be stolen. Criminals will always find ways to make fake chips, just the way they can get fake Social Security cards and other ID's, its only the decent citizens who will have their rights violated by this.

Just keep this to pets, and we'll be OK.

[Siobhan]

Insidious and utterly evil. I can see it happening with so many not understanding what is at stake.

So no subdermal 666 biochip ... then no birth certificate, no identity, no citizenship. It all adds up to the work of Evil itself.

Ping from the Princess of Ping

[Paul C. Jesup]

Just remember that the Nazis has registered (tag) all the Jews long before they sent them to the concentration camps.

I feel like a Jew, from the early 1930's, in Germany.

But judging from the past, I know what is going to happen next.

[hattend]

Bump to the top.

Just curious, what if you go into the hospital for minor surgery (or dentist for a filling). Would you even know if it was implanted? How big is it?

[Domestic Church]

"The grey area I see is with children"

It will become part of the standard procedures for newborns...after they get the apgar and blood work out of the way this will be a routine procedure. Initially they will ask for parental approval on some form but then state by state it will be mandated. Time to start pushing for legal exemption for religious or philosophical reasons NOW!