RFID

RFID (radio-frequency identification) is a technology used to track and monitor anything from wallets to jeans to dogs to passports.

There is a proposal in the United Kingdom to implant RFID chips in its prisoners to free over-crowded prisons. In America, this measure is already implemented.

According to Verichip Corp., 2000 chips have been sold to implant in humans. Presently this technology is used for mainly medical uses. Alzeimer patients and 400 others have the chip implant.

Some of Verichip's customers are using the chip for security. Since the technology currently works short range, it can be used as a high-tech key. In 2006, CityWatcher required its employees to have the implant.

In 2004 The FDA approved a measure by Applied Digital Solutions to chip people with RFID implants.

Wisconsin state Rep. Marlin Schneider (D) said ""I had heard about this device from CNN or someplace, and I went into the office and said, 'Get a bill drafted that prohibits this,'" he said. "This is beyond even what Orwell imagined." (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c..va&aid=7781)

In 2006 Wisconsin law forbade the forceful implanting of these chips in people.
The ban begins on Wednesday, when legislation signed on May 30 by Gov. James Doyle goes into effect. The act dictates that no person may force another to have a microchip implanted in his body. Violators face fines of $10,000 each day until the chip is removed.(www.computerworld.com)

The following has me concerned. I copied and pasted from (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c..va&aid=7781).

How low-tech are these homemade readers?

Determined to show the security flaws to skeptics in the Legislature, Senator Joe Simitian (D-Ca.) asked a tech-savvy grad student from his office to build one. The student then wandered the state Capitol one afternoon with the reader in his briefcase. In the process, he stole the security numbers of nine representatives. The reader could send out any of those numbers, getting him past any locked door a state senator would have access to. And he would appear as the senator in the electronic records.

To add insult to injury, these implants may cause health risks. According to Associated Press the technology could be traced to cancer in lab mice and rats. Dogs seem to be fine, however, some scientists question the FDA's approval of implanting chips into humans.

Why would the FDA approve of implanting these chips into people? Call me a pessimist, but I suspect money is involved.

In any event, the Governator didn't support this invasive measure. He signed a bill that forbid the forced implanting of RFID tech into workers. The mandate went into effect January 1, 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17762244

North Dakota also banned the illicit use of RFID surgical implants.

As of now some U.S. prisons are using RFID tag-based monitoring involving wrist bands. Minnesota's Department of Corrections introduced a $500,000 RFID system for a prison.
http://www.govpro.com/News/Article/68532/

What do your representatives think about this issue? What do you think about it?