March 16, 2006
RFID Chips Invading the DC Area
Well isn’t this just ducky. If living in the DC area weren’t bad enough already, now we have more attacks on our humanity. In addition to terrorist attacks, the sniper scare, anthrax spores and worst of all - politicians, now our bodies are being invaded by RFID chips. Apparently Verichip has decided to descend upon the DC area to test out their new body implants - chips embedded in the body that have your medical history embedded:
Some doctors are welcoming the technology as an exciting innovation that will speed care and prevent errors. But the concept alarms privacy advocates. They worry the devices could make it easier for unauthorized snoops to invade medical records. They also fear that the technology marks a dangerous step toward an Orwellian future in which people will be monitored using the chips or will be required to have them inserted for surveillance.
“It may seem innocuous, but the government and private corporations could use these devices to track people’s movements,” said Liz McIntyre, who co-wrote a book warning about the dangers of such radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. “It may sound paranoid, but this is bound to be abused.”
One wonders if its just a matter of time before people have whole sets of embedded RFID chips for everything from Metro farecards to Starbucks Latte preferences to state drivers licenses. At that point, some entrepreneurial soul will bring to market a multi-functional, “personalized” RFID pass card for all our invasive RFID needs - we might call this an RFID “multi-pass.” Once the masses buy into this idea, I’m sure I’ll run into some hot chick checking out her merchandise at a Walmart, who says to the casher, “Leeloo Dallas, Multipass!” Suffice to say I won’t be getting in the “Tag my ass now” line anytime soon.
Comments
March 16, 2006
DannyV said:
You know, as bad as that sounds, it’ll get implemented anyway. After all, any new technology is vulnerable to abuse, there’s no way around that fact. We can only hope that the good outweights the bad on this issue.
On the subject of good vs bad in future technology, I’m TOTALLY for cybernetics, as long as they’re not invasive like chips on the brain or stuff like that. Hey, if I lose a leg, by all means give me a mechanical one, thankyewverymuch!
SFAM said:
Oh, I don’t have a problem at all with cybernetic implants. But this, I think, is significantly different than doing the modern version of a barcode for people. As for “hoping” the good outweighs the bad, I think in the current climate where the Administration is basically saying we will be in wartime forever, and the power of the Presidency will rise above the constitution until the war ends, I really am not all that thrilled (to put it mildly) about potential invasions to privacy.
I don’t see why someone couldn’t just carry around a medical card with their information in it - or if they prefer - a bracelet. The idea that people will trust companies to put in RFID tags into their bodies that have already been proven hackable just seems like an insanely bad idea to me. Yes, there are many potential benefits - this I do not doubt.