Home > US group implants electronic tags in workers
US group implants electronic tags in workers
by Open-Publishing - Monday 13 February 20062 comments
Un/Employment Digital-Technology USA
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
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.
Forum posts
14 February 2006, 09:20
What a great device to completely screw people around and rip them off.
We all get these cool ID implants..some red some blue even glow in the dark type. We can be traced anywhere in the world simply by walking past a scanner inconspicuously dotted around the metropolis. The info on these implants is tied to our bank accounts, mortgage records,debt levels,income earnings,..... you name it...its all on a huge data bank and anything anyone wants to know about you is recorded and available at a price. Now what happens when corruption happens and you are denied credit on your visa or atm card because some hacker manages to alter your bank account balance... or even the government wants some of your hard earned money ?? or another hacker from FBI or CIA decides you need to be framed as a terrorist threat and all computer records show you where somewhere you werent but the records are fiddled to show you were>> confused ?????? Think about it
14 February 2006, 14:49
Governments have never needed implanted chips to frame and destroy a person, although admittedly such chips will make it a lot easier to do so.
However, the real issue here is not so much framing citizens, but rather, controlling them. It’s just their way of saying - and proving - that Big Brother is watching you. Americans, and rest of the western world, need to very quickly waken up to what is happening right under everyone’s noses. A totalitarian, police state is very much on its way!