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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 06/04/2006 : 18:43:49
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This is one of the most offensive and chilling proposed uses of technology yet, in my opinion. From the LiveScience article:quote:
Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants
By Bill Christensen
posted: 31 May 2006
07:04 pm ET
Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television on May 16.
Silverman was being interviewed on "Fox & Friends." Responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here," he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it...."
The VeriChip is a very small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag about the size of a large grain of rice. It can be injected directly into the body; a special coating on the casing helps the VeriChip bond with living tissue and stay in place. A special RFID reader broadcasts a signal, and the antenna in the VeriChip draws power from the signal and sends its data. The VeriChip is a passive RFID tag; since it does not require a battery, it has a virtually unlimited life span.
RFID tags have long been used to identify animals in a variety of settings; livestock, laboratory animals and pets have been "chipped" for decades. Privacy advocates have long expressed concerns about this technology being used in human beings.
In a related story, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe allegedly remarked that microchips could be used to track seasonal workers to visiting U.S. senators Jeff Sessions (Alabama) and Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania). "President Uribe said he would consider having Colombian workers have microchips implanted in their bodies before they are permitted to enter the US for seasonal work," Specter told Congress on April 25.
. . .
RFID chip, next to a penny
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 14:19:52 [Permalink]
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| I think this is one of those red herrings thrown in by somebody. Perhaps a news reporter mongering a story. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 14:26:28 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
I think this is one of those red herrings thrown in by somebody. Perhaps a news reporter mongering a story.
Oh, please, let it be so!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Rubicon95
Skeptic Friend
USA
220 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 15:20:34 [Permalink]
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RFID is great technology but whoever has thought of using it like this is trying to get money from the gov't.
You need a reader to activate the chip. So the implantees would have to be near one. Distance depend on the type.
So, I guess the implantees go to the border and get scanned by the border agents? Isn't the problem of illegal immigration is that they don't go near the border patrols.
Unless this is the tag 'em like wild animals and dump them on the other side of the border. Still you need someone to direct the antenna at them. You still need manpower.
Plus you can blow away or reprogram chip with your cell phone and with the right knowledge.
http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=kill_rfid_by_cell_phone |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 16:07:38 [Permalink]
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I can just imagine this kind of ultimately intrusive tracking technology beginning with implants in legal immigrants as a "anti-terror" precaution, then being extended to paroled child molesters and others who are beyond the pale. Then it might be promoted as a device to protect children, in helping kidnapped kids to be identified and returned to their families. Or to be implanted in Alzheimer's patients, who have a tendency to wander in confusion. Step by step, sound, logical arguments could be made for each expansion of its use, as this technology became ever more universal.
And the technology might someday allow more and more distant monitoring of human movement, perhaps through using cell phone networks, with the tracking monitored by computers which could look for patterns of social assembly. Nightmarish.
Considering the massive spying upon our citizens in recent years authorized and executed by the Bush Administration, I think we are not overly paranoid if we worry about this latest idea becoming reality. Better to risk being a little overly alarmed now, than being very sorry later.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Rubicon95
Skeptic Friend
USA
220 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 16:17:48 [Permalink]
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| Half, It will happen one day. No question about it. But not now the tech ain't that sound yet. Plus we haven't had a "Lindbergh baby event" yet. When that happens, then we'll see the push to lojack the kids. As we did back then with fingerprints. |
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Stargirl
Skeptic Friend
USA
94 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 17:08:45 [Permalink]
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I'm with HalfMooner with this one. I think the current administration would have fits of orgasmic pleasure at the idea of being able to track the movements of every man woman and child in the US. Another path for implanting everyone would be that it wouldn't make sense to implant only a portion of the population. The argument could be that if you refuse to have a chip implanted you must be trying to hide something. And that would make it even more important that your movements be tracked.
As for the technology it basically already exists. And we walk through scanners every day without paying them any attention. We go through metal and explosives detectors at airports and government buildings. Most stores have anti theft detectors which essentially work on the same RFID technology as the chips that would be implanted. Within a few years these chip will be used to automatically ring up your purchases. Wal-Mart has started insisting that all their vender's products contain RFID chips for inventory tracking. And really how hard would it be to set up sensors along the highways and byways to track everyone's movements?
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If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him - Voltaire |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 19:59:12 [Permalink]
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Indeed. There are great savings to be made by big stores in having the customers push a cart-load through a scanner and have all the items rung up more-or-less instantly. No clerk needed, except when paying by cash or check. And what easier way to eliminate that expense than to insist your customers get chipped as well as your products?
And damn, if it weren't for an article claiming that some people are already calling for chipping human beings, I'd be able to blow this whole thread off as a bunch of slippery-slope arguments.
I think the question becomes one of "is the Fourth Amendment enough protection?" After all, "unreasonable searches" isn't exactly the most specific language one could create. Do privacy rights need to be specifically enumerated, one by one, in the Constitution?
Personally, I think some people try to take them too far, anyway. For example, I've heard privacy advocates complain about red-light cameras, but is it actually reasonable to have an expectation of privacy of where your car is at any particular moment (especially with those big-lettered license plates on them)? I have little doubt that those same privacy advocates would recite a plate number to a cop after witnessing a hit-and-run accident.
And as far as your alarm goes, HalfMooner: do you always pay cash now? |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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JohnOAS
SFN Regular
Australia
800 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 21:58:42 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Rubicon95
Half, It will happen one day. No question about it. But not now the tech ain't that sound yet. Plus we haven't had a "Lindbergh baby event" yet. When that happens, then we'll see the push to lojack the kids. As we did back then with fingerprints.
I agree it will happen. It's not really anything absolutely new, just an improvement on current technology.
I disagree about the "tech aint that sound" bit though. I would purport that should we attempt to press "go" on this right now, the technology issues would be solved relatively trivially. The legal and ethical issues will be much more complex.
The real question is, will it solve more problems than it causes? I tend to think yes, but admit I haven't pondered it too seriously. There are already biometric systems which work at a distance (think facial recognition coupled with other systems). Small, non-powered RFID type systems still require relatively near-field readers, so this technology may be less covert than some which is already out there. This could change very quickly however.
Think about Dave's licence plate example. There are some places in the world where vehicle movements are rotinely tracked. I worked on an ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) systems here. One of the biggest dramas wasn't the technology itself, but the legal issues that go with associating vehicle details with an owner/drivers details.
There are many trade-offs that come with hi-tech living, that's for sure. I tend to weigh in on the pro-technology side on most occasions. |
John's just this guy, you know. |
| Edited by - JohnOAS on 06/05/2006 22:00:30 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 22:12:25 [Permalink]
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Dave W. asks:quote:
And as far as your alarm goes, HalfMooner: do you always pay cash now?
I'm not really sure I follow, but if you're asking about technology in general, I embrace it, especially cashless transactions, despite the possibility that my buying patterns may be tabulated. Of course, if I were to make a purchase that I felt sensitive about, say something from a porno store, I would doubtless carry cash.
I accept red light cameras, serious searches at airports, and even public surveillance cameras on the streets, so long as none of those are subject to official (or private) abuse. I just think that implanted RFID's are way too much to accept, and are incompatible with any kind of real liberty.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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