Country tests ID chips for body implants

[jimpeel]

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5073223.html?part=msn&subj=ns_5073223&tag=tg_nav

Country tests ID chips for body implants

By CNETAsia Staff
CNETAsia
September 9, 2003, 7:19 AM PT

The Malaysian government has bought the rights to tiny chips that can embed IDs into currency notes, bullets, passports and even inside human bodies, reported Malaysian daily The Star.

The government has acquired intellectual property rights to the chip--now dubbed the Malaysian Microchip (MM)--from Japanese research and development company FEC, which designed it.

The chip can replace barcode tags in retail goods, and can be inserted into the human body, animals, bullets, credit cards and other items for verification purposes, said the report.

The made-in-Malaysia microchip measuring 0.5 mm X 0.5 mm--the size of a decimal point--uses the radio frequency identification (RFID) chip technology, and costs 10 cents (0.38 ringgit) each to produce.

A platform for the application of the chip’s underlying technology is currently being set up and is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.

The microchip would be manufactured in Japan early next year but production would eventually move to a factory in Malaysia's northern Kedah state belonging to state-owned wafer fabrication firm Silterra (M) Sdn. Bhd, the country's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in the report.

The MM is a multiband RFID chip, which means that it would also be usable in the United States and Europe, which have adopted a different RFID frequency standard from that in Japan, FEC officials said in the report.

Japanese firms are in the forefront of RFID technology. Hitachi, for example, is rumored to be developing a speck-sized radio chip to be embedded into Euro currency notes as a security measure. At a recent Japan trade show, a demonstration of RFID technology allows retailers to track the movements of a consumer in a bookstore.

Sounds like bullets are going to cost about ten cents more apiece with this technology.

 

[C.R.Sam]

Think I'll buy stock in a company that builds Tesla coils, jacobs ladders etc.

Sam

 

[SteelyDan]

The current Time magazine has a several page long article on this technology. Sounds like it's coming--correction, it's already here. The only question is what limits will there be and what privacy protections will be built-in. Hmmmm, we may be on the same page as the ACLU here, weird...

 

[Preacherman]

This technology is being investigated in several countries (including the USA) for use in corrections facilities. Instead of inmates having to carry an ID card with their photograph, commissary number, etc., an implanted chip would automatically register their movements every time they passed a sensor (e.g. on their way from their cells to their work assignment, to the library, the chapel, etc.). It would make accounting for their whereabouts and movement much easier - but would it be too intrusive? Debate continues...

There's also a company in Florida marketing medical "chip implants" containing a person's medical history. This is read by a special unit at a hospital, etc. if the person is admitted with some sort of problem. It's claimed that this would immediately identify pre-existing conditions, drug allergies, current medication, etc. I guess it would work on a pretty similar basis to the Malaysian technology.

Also remember that most major supermarkets are actively testing RFID systems, where an implanted microchip in every product automatically "tags" it with identification, price, etc. This is slated to replace bar-codes at checkouts: your entire cart would be totalled up for payment simply by pushing it past a checkout monitor. There are loud complaints from civil-liberties groups that the "tag" must be somehow disabled at checkout, otherwise someone could drive past your home with a receiver and be able to assess instantly just about everything you own. (Wal-Mart is requiring its top 100 suppliers to implement this technology at warehouse level by 2005: its remaining suppliers will get a slightly longer timeframe for implementation.)

Finally, there are rumbles in some countries about using such a chip to replace identity documents in total. One could have one's drivers licence, passport, and other identification "implanted" permanently - even one's bank details, so that an ATM would simply "read" the chip and automatically connect one to one's accounts for financial transactions.

"Mark Of The Beast", anyone?

 

[sm]

"Mark Of The Beast", anyone?

Yep, first thing I thought of when the first implant chip "for medical reasons" tossed out.

I recall my elders pitchin' a fit over Social Security Cards. Mine actually has " Not for Identification Purposes" on it. Guess what my Student ID, Health Ins. Employee ID...etc., number is/ has been ?

I'm against any intrusion of my privacy, I don't care what LIE they twist to reason its need./ usefulness.

 

[LawDog]

As for the bullet concept, I haven't heard of a microchip small enough to fit into a 9mm and still be rugged enough to withstand the firing impulse, much less the terminal effects.

So, this tells me that the microchip is actually intended to tell electronic monitoring devices if you have bullets in a given location. If you have bullets on your person, or in your house, then you probably have guns.

Install monitors in convient locations (every-bloody-streetcorner) and you have a system to instantly tell you if any particular person is armed.

Mount the units in vehicles or helicopters, and you can fly by a house and instantly know if there are bullets (and by extension if there are guns) in that house.

That violates the "unreasonable search" prohibition in American law.

As to the implanted version: BITE ME

LawDog

 

[MrAcheson]

One issue, whats the effective detection and scanning range of the the chips? I'm guessing they will work like the door scanners at department stores and will be very short range. Still, they better not try to put one of those things in or on me.

 

[Andrew Rothman]

Still, they better not try to put one of those things in or on me.

(Donning foil hat)

How do you know they haven't already?

 

[Henry Bowman]

667
Mark of the next guy in line after the Beast.

 

[Carlos]

I mentioned this technology a few weeks ago, relative to supermarkets, and somebody actually thought that was pretty funny.

Now I can say, "See, I told you so!!!"

The range, indeed, is very minute at this time, but as LawDog points out, readers can eventually be installed everywhere Big Brother wants em.

 

[Justin]

What's to stop people from coming up with, oh, I dunno, a do-it-yourself electromagnetic pulse generator that could be used to fry these little chips just as soon as you get home from the store?