[Clips] Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants

R.A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Thu Jun 1 17:51:44 PDT 2006


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  Delivered-To: rah at shipwright.com
  Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
  Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 20:50:36 -0400
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants
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  <http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/060531_rfid_chips.html>


  LiveScience.com

  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 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 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 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 Bester's skull bugs)

  VeriChips are legal for implantation in people in the U.S.; see VeriChip
  RFID Tag Patient Implant Badges Now FDA Approved. See also a related story
  on a Proposed National Worker DNA Fingerprint Database. Read more at RFID
  implants for guest workers, Latin leader keen on ID chips and Chip implants
  for migrant workers?.

  --
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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'





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