Big Brother: already here
p2pnet.net News Views:- They use subcutaneous ID tags on dogs – small capsules implanted just under the skin and which can be scanned to identify stray animals. But should RFID (radio frequency ID) spy tags be used on humans?
RFID is already the thing for inventory management, threatening to replace bar codes, and US senator Patrick Leahy wants the US congress to start start looking RFID with a view to regulating it.
Leahy’s interest, albeit apparently benign at this point, should serve as warning. He’s one of the principal supporters of the infamous INDUCE and PIRATE Acts.
Mexican attorney general Rafael Macedo de la Concha boasts that he has a RFID tag embedded in his arm and it’s been argued that if children, for example, wore RFID bracelets, it would make it a lot easier for the authorities to find them if they went missing.
It’s also been argued that RFID spy chips would be terrific as a way to spy on people – criminals, for example. Or employees. Or military personnel. Or anyone.
Bradford C. Brown, chairman of the National Center for Technology and Law at the George Mason University School of Law, doesn’t think they’re such a good idea.
Germany’s Lukas Grunwald and Boris Wolf would agree. They devised and developed RFDump to detect RFID-Tags and show their meta information: Tag ID, Tag Type, manufacturer, etc.
“There’s no doubt that RFID could have a positive impact on the business community, but there are issues associated with RFID tags and their use as a potential personal tracking device,” says Brown in an InformationWeek column here.
“When the insurance company asks why your car was parked in a high crime area, will that be acceptable? Your luggage is at a hotel, what are you doing in Seattle? Why did you buy that particular drug? Do you have something wrong that we need to know about? Where’s the truck you’re driving for us – are you actually driving it or at lunch? The potential for George Orwell’s vision of the future to live in the guise of RFID is only one abuse away.
“The innovation model needs to be changed to incorporate potential societal concerns, like privacy, on the front end, so that millions of dollars aren’t sunk into technologies that we may have a concern about implementing.”
However, with companies such as IBM and Philips taking a serious and very active interest in technology, and with Terrorism occupying so much attention in the US – the world’s most important ‘consumer’ – RFID is here to stay and you can bet one way or another, Big Brother will indeed be riffing you.
September 7th, 2004 at 2:45 pm
Why don’t they just come out and say it — they want to create a race of humanoids.
This is just one step into making us cyber-beings.
The public would not appreciate having their lives constantly monitored — we would become self-conscious about everything we do for the rest of our lives, and that can easily cause an increase in stress levels that nobody needs. One thing that people treasure above all in their privacy, and once that’s taken away from us…what’s left?
Big Brother? Oh, brother…
September 7th, 2004 at 10:07 pm
In the Occupied Territories, Israel keeps a tight grip on the movements of the non-Jewish population. Checkpoints are set up at strategic locations, and as people pass through these multiple checkpoints, this information gets entered into a database, adding to every person’s travel profile. Also, transmitters are planted on cars of suspected militants, and this not only traces their location, but also acts as a homing signal for missiles.
Although effective in monitoring the population, these measures have limitations that a surgically implanted RFID tag would not. People can always switch cars or bypass checkpoints, but a RFID tag implanted inside one’s skull is going to be very difficult – and risky – to remove. An RFID-like device has the potential not only to be used for tracking a person, but also for targeted elimination.
The many invasive privacy-busting technology and techniques developed by countries at war to pacify a hostile occupied population are likely to be eventually transferred to a peaceful domestic environment – “for our own protection”.
September 8th, 2004 at 4:52 am
Ah… remember the good old days when if you worried that the government had planted a tracking chip into your body you were just a paranoid nutjob? Finally, EVERYONE will be able to go about life in constant suspicion that your whereabouts are being tracked!