Are you being chipped...RFID in action...

http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/broken-arrow.html

We all know that the verichip is not a thing of the future...the fda approved it months ago. So what is proper use of this technology? What are we to expect from the manufacturers of the wares we purchase? Where do we draw the lines? I will let you decide for yourself.

http://spychips.com/

"Sir have you been scanned?"

Another good find Isis! Gracias.

Just trying to keep Fed-Co on its toes baby.

Fed-Co, I like it.

Sounds like Federal Corporation.

CASPIAN is a great group. I did some volunteer research for them regarding supermarket bonus cards and item pricing a couple of years ago and had a long talk with Katherine Albrecht on the phone. Very interesting and smart woman. She's since shifted her focus primarily to the RFID issue. It's an interesting technology. One of my clients makes RFID implants for laboratory mice so that techs can get the heart rate, body temp, and a unique ID number for each mouse in a study with the use of a wireless handheld reader. It saves massive amounts of time and money for researchers and puts much less stress on the animals. I can definitely also understand how it can be a huge benefit in supply chain management. It's a shame that every useful technology that comes along that can be used in nefarious privacy stealing ways, WILL get used that way. RFID scares the hell out of me in the same way that GPS navigation systems for cars do. If you always know where you are through GPS, so does someone else.

Really? I'm not challenging you, it just isn't consistent with my understanding of how GPS works and would love some pointers if I am mistaken.

I got a new mobile phone which has GPS (and a bad camera) embedded - 'tis hard to buy one these days without. The funny thing about the GPS in the phone is that the person who could most benefit from it (me) is the one person who doesn't have access to the coordinates, nor can I turn it off.

I could be completely wrong about it Mal I'm not sure. I'm thinking along the lines of OnStar and similar services. You are able to contact them so obviously your unit can transmit and they can see where you are to assist you. It's a combination of GPS and cell phone transmission. It would completely amaze me if they aren't databasing that stuff for whatever value it has for sale to third parties.

Check this out...

http://www.serconline.org/payd/faq.html

Isis,

Thanks for posting the link to CASPIAN.

I've been spending too much time on the Grid.

I think I'll amuse myself for the next few days by writing letters.

== danny d., anxious to be "pacified"

You rock, Isis. I have been hearing about RFID variants since the late '80s, and I am especially alarmed by the bio-implantable ones that could someday be issued to humans. It's purely hearsay on my part, but I've heard they are already in use within all or part of the military. Human beings are not freaking cattle, fo' cryin' out loud!

Thanks for keeping an eye out for us, Isis. I'm sure there's all kinds of scary sh*t going on out there to which we have neery a clue.

I have to admit -- I had a chip placed on my parrot in case he's lost or stolen or escapes.

Yes, Chip, I too see an increasing trend in the gathering of personal information (including position) for all sorts of privacy invasions. From reading a brief blurb on OnStar, it seems to only report position in the case of active user request or automobile detected "emergency" such as airbag deployment. Do I take that as proof that it isn't sending surreptitious position information? No. But I do take the relatively high cost of OnStar transmission - celluar telephone - as one reason that they might not do so often.

I'm glad that you weren't implicating the innocent GPS receiver, but I still have no idea what my phone is doing with my coordinates.

The chip is not just for your pets here is an actual implementation on people:

Paying for drinks with wave
of the hand
Club-goers in Spain get implanted chips for ID, payment purposes

Posted: April 14, 2004
5:00 p.m. Eastern



By Sherrie Gossett
©*2004*WorldNetDaily.com

Being recognized has never been easier for VIP patrons of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain.

Like a scene out of a science-fiction movie, all it takes is a syringe-injected microchip implant for the beautiful men and women of the nightclub scene to breeze past a "reader" that recognizes their identity, credit balance and even automatically opens doors to exclusive areas of the club for them.

They can buy drinks and food with a wave of their hand and don't need to worry about losing a credit card or wallet.

"By simply passing by our reader, the Baja Beach Club will know who you are and what your credit balance is," Conrad K. Chase explains. Chase is director of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona.

"From the moment of their implantation they will also have free entry and access to the VIP area," he said.

In the popular club, which boasts a dance floor that can accommodate 3,000, streamlined services and convenience matter to Chase's VIP customers.

Baja Beach Clubs International is the first firm to employ the "VeriPay System," developed by Applied Digital's VeriChip Corporation and announced at an international conference in Paris last year. The company touts this application of the chip implant as an advance over credit cards and smart cards, which, absent biometrics and appropriate safeguard technologies, are subject to theft resulting in identity fraud.

Palm Beach-based Applied Digital Solutions (NASDAQ:ADSXD) unveiled the original VeriChip immediately after the 9-11 tragedy. Similar to pet identification chips, the VeriChip is a syringe-injectable radio frequency identification microchip that can be read from a few feet away by either a hand-held scanner or by the implantee walking through a "portal" scanner. Information can be wirelessly written to the chip, which contains a unique 10-digit identification number.

Media seized on the novelty factor of the chip implant, driving it to worldwide headlines in 2001.

Last year, Art Kranzley, senior vice president at MasterCard, speculated on possible future electronic payment media: "We're certainly looking at designs like key fobs. It could be in a pen or a pair of earrings. Ultimately, it could be embedded in anything – someday, maybe even under the skin."

Chase calls the chip implant the wave of the future.

The nightclub director has been implanted along with stars from the Spanish version of the TV show "Big Brother."

"I know many people who want to be implanted," he said. "Actually, almost everybody has piercings, tattoos or silicone."

Will the implant only be of use at the Baja?

"The objective of this technology is to bring an ID system to a global level that will destroy the need to carry ID documents and credit cards," Chase said.

During a recent American radio interview, Chase said the CEO of VeriChip, Dr. Keith Bolton, had told him that the company's goal was to market the VeriChip as a global implantable identification system.

With only 900 people implanted worldwide, though, the global mandate isn't exactly around the corner, and current applications are extremely limited.

Chase added, "The VeriChip that we implant at Baja will not only be for the Baja, but is also useful for whatever other enterprise that makes use of this technology."

He also alluded to plans for FN Herstal, which manufactures Browning and Smith and Wesson firearms, to develop an implant-firearm system that would make a firearm functional only to the individual implanted with its corresponding microchip. A scanner in the gun would be designed to recognize the owner.

Chase's mention of the FN Herstal-Verichip partnership came a full week before it's formal announcement by Applied Digital yesterday.

Chase believes all gun owners should be required to have a microchip implanted in their hand to be able to own a gun. While yesterday's Associated Press story on the prototype is primarily from the angle of police usage, WND reported two years ago that from the he outset of the company's acquisition of its "Digital Angel" implant patent – said to be GPS trackable – Applied touted the implant as a potential universal method of gun control.

Chase also claimed that the VeriChip company had told him that the Italian government was preparing to implant government workers.

"We are the only company today offering human implantable ID technology," said Scott R. Silverman, chairman and chief executive officer of Applied Digital Solutions. "We believe the market opportunity for this technology is substantial, and high-profile successes such as in Spain will serve as catalysts for broader adoption."

Since 1999, the Applied Digital Solutions has boasted that it also has a GPS-trackable chip in the works, but four years later the device has yet to come to market. Some mechanical engineers contend such a device requires substantial antenna length and that creating a self-contained unit in the space of a tiny chip is virtually impossible. In addition, questions of accuracy of new GPS consumer items have been raised by the press. A previous Wall Street Journal "road test" of different manufacturers' GPS watches and devices for children had some kids tracked to the Sahara Desert, rather than New York City where they were.

Despite the kinks that may need to be worked out, security of loved ones and personal property remains one of the chief marketing focuses of personal GPS devices and RFID chip firms.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona the VeriChip is gaining a following of enthusiastic "early adopters."

"Everyone embraced the electronic payment application," Chase said. "My customers like the fact that they do not have to carry a credit card or ID card with them. With the VeriPay system, they no longer have to worry about their credit cards getting lost or stolen."

This is also a pretty intersting read: http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usaf/2025/v3c2/v3c2-4.htm#Implanted%20Microscopic%20Chip

From what I know:

Having OnStar in your car means that anyone can listen in at any time to anything you say. You don't have to push the button.

Plain and simple GPS systems do not transmit ANYTHING to ANYONE. They merely recieve three or more timing signals from satelites and use those to triangulate the GPS device's position. More advanced tracking services, such as the one in OnStar and in several new phones, as well as many rental cars, do transmit location info.

Rental cars lately have been going hightech, both with location transmission, and speed tracking. Most rental companies tend to have rules against going over certain speeds, as well as leaving the state. Newer tracking devices watch to see if you do either, and you rack up fines each time you do. There are people who've come back with their rental cars to face $300+ fines by the rental company because they exceeded speed limits or crossed state lines. (Some are suing.)

If the VeriChip thing take off think we'll hear about people getting body parts removed by thieves to get their VeriChip?

Yeah, apparently the police have been getting warrants and using OnStar systems to nail people on various crimes, 'wiretapping' their cars, so to speak. Fun fun stuff!

Personally, I think it'd be just the coolest damn thing to have a chip in my hand or whatever, that I could use to pay for stuff just by waving at it... things like that. Unfortunately, the security and privacy issues at this point would far outweigh the potential usefulness of a technology like this, since people/corps/gov'ts just can't seem to resist the temptations to abuse. *sigh*

Mobile phones have been used to find people's (rough) whereabouts as well - they transmit to their nearest base station every so often.

It's less of a joke than you might think, when biometrics were first introduced in S Africa, people were having their thumbs cut off in order for the perp to have access to their banking accounts via the new biometric ATM's.

I wonder what sorts of countermeasures are possible? For instance, could some sort of EMF burst overload/fry an RFID chip without damaging other stuff nearby?

There is at least one company working towards that end though they have yet to release much of their information. Keep an eye on www.tagzapper.com for future info.

Here is the verichip companies homepage: http://www.4verichip.com/applications.htm

Another great site for info: http://www.rfidnews.com/

From monkeywrench: http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00000267.html

09/05/2003 Archived Entry: "Monkeywrenching assignment"

GOOD MORNING, YOUNG MONKEYWRENCHERS. Here is your assignment for today. Build an RFID disabling device small enough to wear or discreetly carry down the aisles of a store, but powerful enough to blitz the tracking tags on items still on the shelf.

Everybody says RFID is easy to screw up using magnets, microwaves, even a jiggered device made from an old TV tunner. Good. Well, let's be ready when the day comes. The tiny tracker tags aren't in most products yet because the cost of them is still too high. But industry groups and companies all over the world (Gillette, Benetton, and Wal-Mart to name a notorious few) are working toward the goal of having a chip in every product. EVERY product ever made, anywhere in the world. That's the industry's stated goal. Once the chips are in, it simply won't be good enough to bring home our own bras or jockey shorts or jars of peanut butter and give them a quick micro-zap. It'll be up to us to make sure the whole system doesn't work.

And to do that -- if in-the-system fighters like CASPIAN can't stop them before they get started -- we must kill millions of tags at the source. We must break the whole system. We must make sure corporate Little Brother gets no reliable result from his investment. Let them put the tracking tags on pallets and cartons in their warehouses. Shipping and inventory control. Fine. (Wal-Mart has backed off to say that's all it plans to do, and Gillette, too, has "postponed" its plans. For the moment.) But the instant they try to put their tracking devices in our hands, SIZZZZZZZLE!

There may be an added benefit to a discreet tracker-zapper. We're now also getting ID cards that can actually be scanned while still in our purses and wallets. (Sounds like some bad SF movie, but it's true.) The same doodad that remotely fries the RFID in our Fritos might create freedom-loving havoc to Big Brother wherever it goes. All you'd have to do is stroll casually among the crowd, zapping away. And in pants pockets, the little ID beacons quietly wink out, all around the world.

God this topic seems so familiar. Then it hit me. i read of this a few years ago. aparently the chip if removed from the body disables itself, or was so fragile that removal caused ireprable damage.

I don't think RFID is gonna get outta control... because too many people are suspicious, and they are watchin' close.

But they -are- gonna end up doing some cool stuff with it. I'm sure we'll all love it.

Well that is a loaded statement...I love the "those" who give themselves over to the "theys" in the hopes of something "cool." We need to be the ones watching closely how the hands of our elected officials who are amusing themselves with these spy toys. Our liberties are not in the position to be compromised by injectible ID tags. We are having enough trouble with the lavish and unsanctioned editing of the constitution via agenda laden translation without this added insult.

I am sorry but it is not that hard to put a couple of quarters into a vending machine or show my ID at a club. Not hard enough for me suffer the consequences of "potential" misuse. I don't know about you but I really don't want to have to "show" my papers by scanning my hand/arm/left butt cheek every time I move in this country. I should be able to buy a pack of smokes or a bottle of wine without my doctor, my insurance company or the fed-co finding out. Maybe it is just me but something about that just reeks unconstitutional.

I will prophesy and say that within the next 5 years they will be mandatory for insurance purposes, within 10 years they will be your sole form of ID required for all transactions and within the next 15 years technology will reach the point where the implant will be capable of determining your alcohol/drug intake (likely your heartrate and bp ect as well). You can hold me to that. There will come a point when you are trying to order a pizza and the operator comes online to tell you that you are not allowed to have extra cheese due to the fact that your BMI is already over the limit....would you like tofu pizza with a side of sprouts instead.

Time for me to buy a couple of acres in the mountains and I'm sort of kidding and not kidding. The insurance companies are completely out of control.

However I do think that you are correct. RFID won't be forced by our government, it will be shoved down our throats by our place of employment, our financial institutions and our insurance companies in the same manner that the U.S. forces other countries to comply with their policies - by economic sanctions.

Want to work? Get chipped.

Want to open a checking account, have a credit card or pay for an item? Get chipped.

Want health, auto or home owners insurance? Get chipped.

Want a home loan? Get chipped.

I do however believe that corporations have been somewhat surprised by the backlash at RFID and if nothing else, this has delayed the implementation. BTW - I appreciate the links Isis, I was not aware of monkeywrench.

Lobbiest will of course convince congress to make such actions illegal - (if they are not already). Nevertheless, civil disobediance may be our only possible retort.