Editor's Note

By Ralph C Jensen · August 2006

An RFID Implant Where?

JAPANESE scientists have broken the secret of what the picture-perfect Mona Lisa's voice might have sounded like. Acoustics expert Dr. Matsumi Suzuki measured the face and hands of the 16th century portrait and now has a voice print. He believes it is 90-percent accurate.

Scientists also brought in an Italian woman to complete the intonation of the voice, though Suzuki said they tried having her speak Japanese. It probably didn't suit her image.

How about implanting RFID tracking tags in immigrants and guest workers? I am not suggesting this, and if I had, I would have been beaten to the punch by Scott Silverman, chairman of the board at VeriChip Corp.

What in the world will scientists think of next?

How about implanting RFID tracking tags in immigrants and guest workers? I am not suggesting this, and if I had, I would have been beaten to the punch by Scott Silverman, chairman of the board at VeriChip Corp.

During an interview May 16 on Fox and Friends, Silverman was responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here." He proposed RFID implants to register workers at the border under a guest worker program. It's not necessarily for those 12 million illegal workers already in this country. A law comes first, however, and right now there are only two competing bills on the table. The only thing missing and what Congress will demand is tamper-proof technology and a guarantee that employers make certain that guest workers are properly registered, paying taxes and off their shoulders, abiding by the law.

Silverman has experience of having a chip placed in the body. During the Fox News interview, it was revealed that he had a chip placed in his upper right arm, and it's been there for about three years. It brings to mind why anyone would want such a device placed in their body. In Silverman's case, the FDA-approved Class 2 medical device stores his medical records, and in case of emergency where he can't communicate, medical workers tap into the RFID chip for his personal information.

According to Silverman, the chip has a unique 16-digit identification number, and through a serial port it is attached to a computer where a database can pull up, in this case, a medical application and medical records can be accessed. More than 100 hospitals in the Northeast have RFID readers in emergency rooms.


I'm still a little surprised, but the concept is this: if a patient is brought into the ER and can't communicate, their vitals are taken, and they are checked by an RFID reader to see if they have an RFID chip.

Though Silverman and VeriChip have approached the government about the implantation, so far, the government has not bought into the program. The chip is not a locating device and can only be used at short range. It is a passive device with no power source under the skin that ties to a database where relevant information is stored.

Call me a civil libertarian, but how can one be certain what information is stored on the chip and if it can or will be removed from the body on request?

Apparently, this type of identification has caused enough concern among lawmakers in Wisconsin that they proposed, and Gov. Jim Doyle has signed, a law making it a crime to require a person be implanted with a microchip. The governor signed A.B. 290, which prohibits anyone from requiring an individual to undergo the implanting of a microchip. There are exceptions if the implanting is a condition of criminal sentencing or if a parent directs the implantation in a minor.

Still, the thought of implanting a microchip into another human being in order to work in this country doesn't make sense to me. Not that it hasn't been brought up before.

A movement afoot in 2004 in Palm Beach, Fla., would have implanted a tiny chip in a police officer's hand and would match up with a scanning device inside a handgun. A digital signal, unlocking the trigger so it could be fired. Otherwise, the gun would be useless.

The Mexican government, more particularly the country's attorney general, wanted to have microchips implanted in at least 160 people in his office in 2004. This would allow those people access to secure areas of their headquarters. Mexico's top federal prosecutors and investigators began receiving chip implants in their arms in November 2004.

Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha was branded, I mean implanted with a microchip in his arm, to have access to a new federal anti-crime information center. According to the Mexican government, the chips provide more certainty as to who accessed sensitive information at any given time. In the past, the biggest security problem for Mexican law enforcement has been corruption by officials themselves.

Now, we're getting somewhere. The Mexican government is admitting internal corruption. And it seems to me that the Mexican government is having a difficult time keeping the peace along its borders because of the warring drug cartels. Will placing a chip in government officials deter crime? Here's why it won't work.

The chip lies dormant under the skin until read by an electromagnetic scanner, and RFID technology addresses the chip. Silverman says the chips have a special identification number that would foil an imposter. There seems to be a direct correlation between a dormant chip and government officials.

The chip originally was developed to track livestock and wildlife and to let pet owners identify runaway animals. Since when do illegal immigrants fall into the same category as runaway animals? Before you know it, it will be mandatory in baseball for major league pitchers to be chipped before they take the mound.

If people don't want RFID tags in their underwear or in their designer clothes, why would they ever want them under their skin? Still, security experts say that over the next decade, chips for humans, or some variation thereof, will emerge as a market, and before you know it, we'll all be singing Frank Sinatra's classic, "I've Got You Under My Skin."

This article originally appeared in the August 2006 issue of Security Products, pg. 6.

About the author

Ralph C Jensen
Ralph C. Jensen is editor-in-chief of Security Products magazine.

You can visit the company Web site at 1105 Media Inc. .


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