p2pnet.net OT News:- US passports will soon have embedded chips that will broadcast on command an individual’s name, address and digital photo to a computerized reader, says Wired News.

"The State Department hopes the addition of the chips, which employ radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology, will make passports more secure and harder to forge, according to spokeswoman Kelly Shannon," it says, going on:

"But civil libertarians and some technologists say the chips are actually a boon to identity thieves, stalkers and commercial data collectors, since anyone with the proper reader can download a person’s biographical information and photo from several feet away."

Spy chips are also raising concerns in a medical context.

Tiny VeriChip RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) transmitters embedded in people’s bodies so they can release "patient-specific information when a scanner passes over the chip" can cause a wide range of health problems, says CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering).

Electrical hazards, MRI incompatibility, adverse tissue reaction and migration of the implanted transponder are only a few of the potential risks associated with the implants, says CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht.

===================

See:-

computerized reader - American Passports to Get Chipped, Wired News, October 21, 2004

medical context - Spy chip health hazards, p2pnet, October 22, 2004

This entry was posted on Friday, October 22nd, 2004 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 1646 times