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...
750 gr too
Hell, if the company wanted to vivisect them, that would be A-OK, since they knowingly signed on the dotted line.
God help us all.
Man, turn your left blinker off, will ya! Blackbird.
Did this person wander on to a nominally conservative forum by mistake? I wonder if he ever heard Sam Adam's quote about licking the hands that feed you and chains resting lightly. Or patrick Henry's quote on liberty. Hell I wonder if he ever heard of Sam Adams or Patrick Henry.
This will only lead to mandatory dog tags for soldiers, licenses for drivers, bank account numbers etc. The horror.
Try seeing the chip as a yellow Star of David (1939 - Germany).
Actually it would be analogous to the number tattooed on your arm during that same time period.
230gr
As he presents himself, we should all lay down at the feet of his perfection. He's just another lunatic, best I can tell. Blackbird.
lunatic = liberal = jackboot licker
Actually, not. See http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa031298.htm
ACLU people? So, anyone who believes that privacy is more important than automatic identification is an ACLU ass? Feh.
Regarding friendly fire problems, consider that any device that can be read by us can also be read by the enemy - which means they have perfect little RF homing signals for their outgoing fire. Maybe they even can decode them, so that they can target only officers, all the way up to the CINC.
Think things through before you post - your point makes no sense.
The chips can be faked. It is possible, and getting easier, to clone a RFID.
By resorting to a scan, you actually make fraud a bit easier.
"CityWatcher.com"
Curious. Can anyone find out who the chairman is and his political contributions? My best is he is a Democrat.
They will probably want to do this to gun owners first.
Britain will do it before North Korea will, becuase they can afford, and because their government would love to have it. I still don't get their government's obsession with tracking everything (maybe because they are an island, it's a lot easier).
yeah i had thought the same thing about the uk, it is pretty much part and parcel of their current campaign to track and know EVERYTHING that happens in country, and store that data forever.
Slightly off topic but relevant to consider is how the US government is currently implementing a National Animal Identification System (Link) using the same chip.
All livestock are to be tagged, and their movements recorded and documented ..... for health purposes, or so they say.
From the NAIS site
The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a national program intended to identify animals and track them as they come into contact with, or commingle with, animals other than herd mates from their premises of origin.Once the bugs are worked out of this system, it will be ready for the sheeple.
Hell, I won't even chip my pets let alone a HUMAN BEING!
Things are ramping up out there ... hope He comes SOON!
"The technology’s defenders say it is acceptable as long as it is not compulsory."
And the guy that developed it said that it would only be used in animals, never in humans, too. Oops! Guess we had mission creep once again.
"The "VeriChip" which is what the article is referring to has recently been proven it can be cloned. "
Oh, but don't worry. They will put in some safeguards against this. In fact, they will get the Internet Explorer browser developers to implement the security protocol.
The we know it could never be hacked. </sarcasm>
It's a bit more convoluted than that.
The patent for the implantable microchip (for both animal and human applications) is owned by Digital Angel Corp. which in turn is owned by Applied Digital Solutions, who also are about to IPO the Verichip Corp. Applied Digital licenses the rights to the human applications from Digital Angel and will spin off that license to the Verichip Corp.
The chips themselves are manufactured by Raytheon (article cite).
"Do random drug tests or government databases give you the creeps? If your up to no good they should, otherwise, WHO CARES? I don't have to hide behind "privacy" rights (a liberal construct) or miranda warnings because I walk the straight and narrow.
You should too."
You should get out more. Ever heard about this? It's a true story about a guy walked the straight and narrow.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093126/
Don't worry, this will only be voluntary, comrade.
"Logically, to be effective, the program would have to cooerce compliance with forceful implantation"
Please come and try to chip me.
I dare you.
"Regarding friendly fire problems, consider that any device that can be read by us can also be read by the enemy - which means they have perfect little RF homing signals for their outgoing fire."
And since RFID's have to be "painted" with interogation signals in order to be read, we have perfect big RF homing signals for our outgoing.
( but since current RFID's range about 12 ft max right now, we are within "whites of their eyes" range anyway )
Concur. Toward the end of the XX Century, I kept saying that the most analagous situation to that toward which we're now heading is that of the Finnish Civil War of 1918, when Finnish patriots forestalled attempts by their nations *progressives* to jump on the Bolshevik revolution's success in Russia.
Now that we're in the XXI Century, I still know of no better situation for comparison. And as we head toward the anniversary of that Finnish national bloodletting, I wonder if we'll last until 1018 before it blows the lid off.
| Lives Lost | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reason | Reds | Whites | Other | Total |
| Killed in action | 5,199 | 3,414 | 790 | 9,403 |
| Executed, shot or murdered | 7,370 | 1,424 | 926 | 9,720 |
| Concentration Camp deaths | 11,652 | 4 | 1,790 | 13,446 |
| Died after release from camp | 607 | - | 6 | 613 |
| Missing | 1,767 | 46 | 380 | 2,193 |
| Other causes | 443 | 291 | 531 | 1,265 |
| Total | 27,038 | 5,179 | 4,423 | 36,640 |
| Source: National Archive | ||||
yeah sure
Oh, and these things have already been cloned. The mfgr is pretty red-faced about it.
L
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