IP: U.S. to Weigh Computer Chip Implant I know my clock was off but it is not April 1!!!

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Richard Jay Solomon <rsolomon@dsl.cis.upenn.edu>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 19:14:09 -0500
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: U.S. to Weigh Computer Chip Implant

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Human-Computer-Chip.html

> 
> February 26, 2002
> U.S. to Weigh Computer Chip Implant
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
> 
> Filed at 6:12 p.m. ET
> 
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Florida technology company is poised to ask the
> government to market a first-ever computer ID chip that could be embedded
> beneath a person's skin.
> 
> For airports, nuclear power plants, and other high security facilities, the
> immediate benefits would be a closer-to-foolproof security system. But privacy
> advocates warn the chip could lead to encroachments on civil liberties.
> 
> No easy-to-counterfeit ID cards nor dozing security guards. Just a computer
> chip -- about the size of a grain of rice -- that would be difficult to remove
> and tough to mimic.
> 
> Other possible uses of the technology, from an added device that would allow
> satellite tracking of an individual's every movement to the storage of
> sensitive data like medical records, are already attracting interest across
> the globe for tasks like foiling kidnappings or assisting paramedics.
> 
> Applied Digital Solutions (news/quote)' new ``VeriChip'' is another sign that
> Sept. 11 has catapulted the science of security into a realm with uncharted
> possibilities -- and also new fears for privacy.
> 
> ``The problem is that you always have to think about what the device will be
> used for tomorrow,'' said Lee Tien, a senior attorney for the Electronic
> Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group.
> 
> ``It's what we call function creep. At first a device is used for applications
> we all agree are good but then it slowly is used for more than it was
> intended,'' he said.
> 
> Applied Digital, based in Palm Beach, Fla., says it will soon begin the
> process of getting Food and Drug Administration approval for the device, and
> intends to limit its marketing to companies that ensure its human use is
> voluntary.
> 
> ``The line in the sand that we draw is that the use of the VeriChip would
> always be voluntarily,'' said Keith Bolton, chief technology officer and a
> vice president at Applied Digital. ``We would never provide it to a company
> that intended to coerce people to use it.''
> 
> More than a decade ago, Applied bought a competing firm, Destron Fearing,
> which had been making chips implanted in animals for several years. Those
> chips were mainly bought by animal owners wanting to provide another way for
> pound workers to identify a lost pet.
> 
> Chips for humans aren't that much different.
> 
> But the company was hesitant to market them for people because of ethical
> questions. The devastation of Sept. 11 solidified the company's resolve to
> market the human chip and brought about a new sensibility about the possible
> interest.
> 
> ``It's a sad time ... when people have to wonder whether it's safe in their
> own country,'' Bolton said.
> 
> The makers of the chip also foresee it being used to help emergency workers
> diagnose a lost Alzheimer's patient or access an unconscious patient's medical
> history.
> 
> Getting the implant would go something like this:
> 
> A person or company buys the chip from Applied Digital for about $200 and the
> company encodes it with the desired information. The person seeking the
> implant takes the tiny device -- about the size of a grain of rice, to their
> doctor, who can insert it with a large needle device.
> 
> The doctor monitors the device for several weeks to make sure it doesn't move
> and that no infection develops.
> 
> The device has no power supply, rather it contains a millimeter-long magnetic
> coil that is activated when a scanning device is run across the skin above it.
> A tiny transmitter on the chip sends out the data.
> 
> Without a scanner, the chip cannot be read. Applied Digital plans to give away
> chip readers to hospitals and ambulance companies, in the hopes they'll become
> standard equipment.
> 
> The chip has drawn attention from several religious groups.
> 
> Theologian and author Terry Cook said he worries the identification chip could
> be the ``mark of the beast,'' an identifying mark that all people will be
> forced to wear just before the end times, according to the Bible.
> 
> Applied Digital has consulted theologians and appeared on the religious
> television program the ``700 Club'' to assure viewers the chip didn't fit the
> biblical description of the mark because it is under the skin and hidden from
> view.
> 
> Even with the privacy and religious concerns, some are already eager to use
> the product.
> 
> Jeff Jacobs in Coral Springs, Florida has contacted the company in hopes of
> becoming the first person to purchase the chip.
> 
> Jacobs suffers from a number of serious allergies and wants to make sure
> medical personnel can diagnose him.
> 
> ``They would know who to contact, they would know what medications I'm on, and
> it's quite a few,'' he said. ``They would know what I'm allergic to, what kind
> of operations I've had and where there might be problems.''
> 
> Applied Digital says technology to let the chip to be used for tracking is
> already well under development.
> Eight Latin American companies have contacted Applied Digital and have openly
> encouraged the company to pursue the internal tracking devices. In some
> countries, kidnapping has become an epidemic that limits tourism and business.
> 
> 
> Copyright 2002 The Associated Press | Privacy Information


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