[privacy] FW: Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants

["'Richard M. Smith'" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/060531_rfid_chips.html
 

Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants
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By Bill Christensen
 <http://www.technovelgy.com/> 
posted: 31 May 2006
07:04 pm ET

  <http://images.livescience.com/template_images/livescience/transpacer.gif>




Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed
implanting the company's RFID
<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=1> tracking
tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national
television earlier this week.

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
<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=3> 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
<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=47> 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 to
visiting U.S. senators Jeff Sessions (Alabama) and Arlen Specter
(Pennsylvania) that microchips could be used to track seasonal workers.
"President Uribe said he would consider having Colombian workers have
microchips implanted in their bodies before they are permitted to enter the
U.S. for seasonal work," Specter told Congress on April 25. 


Implanting microchips in human beings for the purpose of monitoring is not
exactly news for science fiction fans; Alfred Bester wrote about "skull
bugs" in his 1974 novel The Computer Connection: 


"...you don't know what's going on in the crazy culture outside. It's a
bugged and drugged world. Ninety percent of the bods have bugs implanted in
their skulls in hospital when they're born. They're monitored constantly."
(Read more about Alfred
<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=668> Bester's skull bugs)

VeriChips are legal for implantation in people in the U.S.; see VeriChip
<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=199> RFID
Tag Patient Implant Badges Now FDA Approved. See also a related story on a
Proposed
<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=640>
National Worker DNA Fingerprint Database. Read more at RFID implants for
guest workers
<http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/rfid-implants-for-guest-workers> ,
Latin leader keen on ID chips and Chip implants for migrant workers?
<http://www.drudge.com/news/81612/chip-implants-immigrant-workers> . 


(This Science Fiction in the News story used with permission from
Technovelgy.com -  <http://www.technovelgy.com/> where science meets
fiction.) 


*       George  <http://www.livescience.com/othernews/051020_orwell.html>
Orwell's Illnesses Influenced '1984' 

*       State
<http://www.livescience.com/technology/060425_implant_law.html> Would Outlaw
Mandatory Microchip Implants 

*       Chip
<http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/technovel_organs_050215.html>
Implants Proposed To Halt Blackmarket Cadaver Trade 

*       Two
<http://www.livescience.com/technology/060213_ap_tracking_chips.html>
Workers Have Tracking Chips Implanted Into Them 

*       More
<http://www.livescience.com/technology/ap_050906_kid_track.html> Parents
Going High-Tech to Track Kids

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