Here it comes: The iMplant, RFID chips under the skin going mainstream

I love technology. I am fascinated by pushing the technological envelope. I have long lived much of my life in cyberspace and I believe innovation is one of the key creators of real wealth and real human progress. However one should be very cautious when considering whether to implant oneself with an RFID chip.

The gains in convenience are obvious and this is how the technology will be sold. Why carry around a key that one can lose? Why have a bunch of passwords when one is online? Just put a chip under the skin with all of one’s information in it and never carry a key or worry about a password again.

And if one has health issues we will be told that an RFID chip is absolutely necessary. When the paramedics arrive all they will need to do is scan one’s chip and all of one’s health information will be instantly uploaded. This will presumably increase efficiency and save lives. And indeed it very likely might.

But the dark side of this technology is readily obvious too. Will the government have access to the information on these chips? Under the Constitution and the 4th Amendment it seems clearly it shouldn’t. But we don’t tend to follow the rule of law so much anymore.

If government had ready access to all of the information embedded in these chips, and if everyone had such a chip implanted, the data would be immensely valuable to all the “behavioral economists” now populating the wonkier parts of Washington. That is the data would be very valuable to the bureaucrats and planners who want us to live how they would prefer us to live.

RFID implants are a totalitarian’s dream and it’s a dream that is close to being realized.

(From The Wall Street Journal)

It only takes a few seconds to inject the small glass cylinder containing a tag, the size of a grain of rice, under the skin. It can be done by anyone, but proponents say it is best done by a trained person with sterilized equipment to lower the risk of infection.

Once a tag is implanted, there can be an adjustment period: “They can move a little bit depending on skin type and activities,” says Quentin Inglis, owner of the Kalima Emporium, a tattoo and piercing studio in Worthing, England, who has implanted tags for several customers. Mr. Inglis keeps his business card on an implanted tag. “I do a lot of climbing, so mine moved around a bit until it found a position it was happiest with,” he says.

Congratulations kid. Now you can never go off the grid. (Not that most folks are worried about that.)

Click here for the article.

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/