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Chips Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=51180&id=200202261956000188605http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=51180&id=200202261956000188605
U.S. to Weigh Computer Chip Implant
Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Florida technology company is poised to
ask the government for permission 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 could be a closer-to-foolproof security system. But
privacy advocates warn the chip could lead to encroachments on civil liberties.
The implant technology is another case of science fiction evolving
into fact. Those who have long advanced the idea of implant
chips say it could someday mean no more 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 uses of the technology on the horizon, 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' 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.
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