| XXXII. | Human Microchip Implants: Requirement Considered |
| Posted: March 3, 2004 |
| A. | BBC News: Possibility of Human Chip Implant Requirement Implied for Babies and Criminals: August 25, 1998 |
| An August 25, 1998 BBC News item considered the possibility of implanting microchips in babies and criminals. |
| Criminal offenders and even babies can already be tracked using electronic tagging devices attached to their body, the next step could be to implant silicon chips instead.569 |
| B. | ADS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Sullivan: Human Chip Implants: "No One Will Be Forced": WorldNetDaily.com: March 20, 2000. |
| Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Sullivan states that "no one will be forced to wear Digital Angel®." |
| Digital Angel® sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by global positioning satellite technology. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles and can be activated either by the "wearer" or by a monitoring facility... |
| [Applied Digital Solutions Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard] Sullivan, responding to religious objections to his product, told WorldNetDaily no one will be forced to wear Digital Angel®. |
| "We live in a voluntary society," he said. According to the CEO, individuals may choose not to take advantage of the technology.570 |
| C. | Dr. Peter Zhou, Chief Scientist for Development of The Implant and President of Digitalangel.Net, Inc., A Subsidiary of Ads: Human Chip Implants May Be Required in The Future To Operate Computers: WorldNetDaily.com: March 20, 2000. |
| Dr. Peter Zhou, chief scientist for development of the implant and president of DigitalAngel.net, Inc., a subsidiary of ADS [Applied Digital Solutions], considered the possibility that human chip implants may be required in the future to operate computers. |
| Applied Digital Solutions, an e-business to business solutions provider, acquired the patent rights to the miniature digital transceiver it has named "Digital Angel®." The company plans to market the device for a number of uses, including as a "tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business security." |
| Digital Angel® sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by global positioning satellite technology. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles and can be activated either by the "wearer" or by a monitoring facility... |
| Dr. Peter Zhou, chief scientist for development of the implant and president of DigitalAngel.net, Inc, a subsidiary of ADS, told WorldNetDaily the device will send a signal from the person wearing Digital Angel® to either his computer or the e-merchant with whom he is doing business in order to verify his identity. |
| In the future, said Zhou, computers may be programmed not to operate without such user identification. As previously reported in WND, user verification devices requiring a live fingerprint scan are already being sold by computer manufacturers. Digital Angel¨ takes such biometric technology a giant step further by physically joining human and machine.571 |
| D. | Dr. Peter Zhou, Chief Scientist For Development Of The Implant And President of DigitalAngel.net, Inc., a Subsidiary of ADS: American Soldiers May Be Required To Wear Human Chip Implants: WorldNetDaily.com: March 20, 2000. |
| Dr. Peter Zhou, chief scientist for development of the implant and president of DigitalAngel.net, Inc., a subsidiary of ADS [Applied Digital Solutions], considered the possibility that American soldiers may be required to wear human chip implants. |
| Digital Angel® sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by global positioning satellite technology. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles and can be activated either by the "wearer" or by a monitoring facility... |
| Digital Angel®'s developer told WND [WorldNetDaily] demand for the implant has been tremendous since ADS [Applied Digital Solutions] announced its acquisition of the patent in December. |
| "We have received requests daily from around the world for the product," [Dr. Peter] Zhou [chief scientist for development of the implant and president of DigitalAngel.net, Inc, a subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions] said, mentioning South America, Mexico and Spain as examples. |
| One inquirer was the U.S. Department of Defense, through a contractor, according to Zhou. American soldiers may be required to wear the implant so their whereabouts and health conditions can be accessed at all times, said the scientist.572 |
| E. | "Real Question... Who Will Be Able to Demand That a Chip Be Implanted in Another Person...?": Bob Gellman, Washington Privacy Consultant: September 7, 2000 |
| In a salon.com Web site article by Katharine Mieszkowski, Washington privacy consultant Bob Gellman discusses questions. |
| And, like almost everyone else I talked to in this field, Applied Digital Systems' [CEO Richard] Sullivan dismisses nagging doubts about what it means to literally wire ourselves up. "By our own nature, we tend to avoid things we know the least about and gravitate towards those that we do know. Some of the things that have made the most positive contributions to our lives are the things that there are the most concern about. Like any technology, it's really in the hands of the user," he says. Translation: it's Galileo vs. the church all over again... |
| However fashionable or discreet tracking devices might become, not everyone is titillated by the possibilities. "I think most people would be repulsed by the idea. This is just a sort of modern version of tattooing people, something that for obvious reasons -- the Nazis tattooed numbers on people -- no one proposes," says Bob Gellman, a Washington privacy consultant. "You can do anything you want voluntarily. You can tattoo a bar code on your forehead if you want." |
| But the real question, as he sees it, is who will be able to demand that a chip be implanted in another person -- a parent in a child; a prison in an inmate; the INS in an undocumented illegal alien found in the country; an employer in an employee as a condition of being hired? |
| "I'm sure there's a strong argument that implanting a chip in a person is unconstitutional. It would be cruel and unusual punishment," he says. And for now the legal and social questions of who could turn such a chip on or off and who would have access to the information generated by such a chip is "a totally unexplored area," says Gellman, adding: "And probably one better off left unexplored."573 |
| F. | "And What If An Implant Isn't Voluntary?": Business2.0: December 2000 |
| Rick Overton in a "Potential for abuse" section of an article entitled, "Digital Angel Is Watching You," briefly reflects on the possibility of implants that are not voluntary. The article was introduced with a two-sentence overview: "Bio-digital implants that monitor and broadcast your every move could save your life in an emergency. Or destroy your last vestige of privacy." |
| And what if an implant isn't voluntary? It's easy to imagine the state making arguments for tracking and maybe treating criminals-such as convicted sex offenders-with implanted devices. In fact, there is a precedent for this. In January 1991, Judge Howard Broadman of the Tulare County Superior Court in California ordered that Darlene Johnson, a convicted child abuser, have the Norplant birth control device implanted in her body. (The sentence was neither carried out nor tested in a higher court because Johnson violated the terms of her parole and was sent to prison.)574 |
| G. | Human Microchip Implants: Simultaneously Could Be Implanted in Those Unable to Give Consent, While Avoiding Involuntary Identification: EE Times: January 7, 2002 |
| Consideration is simultaneously given to implanting chips in those unable to give consent such as young children and adults with Alzheimer's, while avoiding involuntary identification of prisoners or parolees. |
| Applied Digital's executives said the ability to inject the chips opens up a variety of RFID applications in high-security situations, as well other types of human identification systems. The chips, they said, could be implanted in young children or in adults with Alzheimer's disease, to help officials identify people who can't identify themselves. |
| But the company is backing away from involuntary identification applications, such the tracking of prisoners or parolees. "We are advocating that this technology be totally voluntary," [Keith] Bolton [senior vice president of technology development] said.575 |
| H. | Pilots Could Be Chipped; Violent Criminals and Terrorists Should Be Chipped; Microchips Could Track Foreigners: "They Want Their ID Chips Now," Wired News: February 6, 2002 |
| A February 6, 2002 Wired News article entitled, "They Want Their ID Chips Now," comments on the possibility of chipping both pilots and foreigners visiting the U.S. |
| Meet the Jacobs family: Jeffrey, Leslie and their son, Derek. They're a fairly typical American family, middle class and ambitious. The father is a dentist, the mother is an account executive at an interior design magazine and the 14-year-old son plays jazz and tinkers with computers in his spare time. |
| But one thing may soon make the Jacobses stand out: They could become the first family in the world to be implanted with microchips that contain their personal information. |
| The chip in question, the VeriChip, is similar to the biochips that have been used to identify pets and livestock for years. |
| Made by Applied Digital Solutions (ADS), the VeriChip stores six lines of text and is slightly larger than a grain of rice. It emits a 125-kHz radio frequency signal that can be picked up by a special scanner up to four feet away... |
| Leslie, 46, said she was motivated by security concerns. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit close to home: Her family lives in South Florida, where authorities say 14 of the 19 hijackers lived. Her office is a block away from tabloid publisher American Media, where a photo editor died after contracting anthrax. |
| The world would be a safer place if authorities had a tamper-proof way of identifying people, she said. |
| "I have nothing to hide, so I wouldn't mind having the chip for verification," Leslie Jacobs said. "I already have an ID card, so why not have a chip?" |
| Pilots could be chipped and scanned before they entered the cockpit, she suggested, to ensure the person sitting at the controls was indeed an airline employee. Her husband went further, suggesting that violent criminals and known terrorists should be routinely chipped as a matter of policy. |
| The idea of requiring people to be implanted was brought up by Applied Digital Solutions CEO Richard Sullivan in an interview with the Palm Beach Post, in which he suggested microchips be used to track foreigners visiting the United States. (The company has since downplayed his comments.)576 |
| I. | Line in the Sand: VeriChip Always Voluntary: Applied Digital Solutions' Chief Technology Officer: Associated Press, February 26, 2002, and World Magazine, June 15, 2002 |
| 1. | Line in the Sand: VeriChip Always Voluntary: Applied Digital Solutions' Chief Technology Officer/Vice President: Associated Press article in washingtonpost.com: February 26, 2002 |
| The assertion was made by Keith Bolton, chief technology officer and a vice president at Applied Digital that "the use of the VeriChip would always be voluntary." |
| A Florida technology company is poised to ask the government for permission to market a first-ever computer ID chip that could be embedded beneath a person's skin. |
| For airports, nuclear power plants and other high security facilities, the immediate benefits could be a closer-to-foolproof security system... |
| Applied Digital, based in Palm Beach, Fla., says it will soon begin the process of getting Food and Drug Administration approval for the device, and intends to limit its marketing to companies that ensure its human use is voluntary. |
| "The line in the sand that we draw is that the use of the VeriChip would always be voluntary," said Keith Bolton, chief technology officer and a vice president at Applied Digital. "We would never provide it to a company that intended to coerce people to use it."577 |
| 2. | Line in the Sand: VeriChip Always Voluntary: Applied Digital Solutions' Chief Technology Officer: World Magazine: June 15, 2002 |
| Keith Bolton, chief technology officer at Applied Digital Solutions, made the assertion that "the use of the VeriChip would always be voluntary." |
| A Florida company wants to market perhaps the most controversial security measure ever devised: a computer ID chip that can be embedded under someone's skin... |
| Applied Digital Solutions' new VeriChip is about the size of a grain of rice, hard to remove, and difficult to counterfeit... |
| "The line in the sand that we draw is that the use of the VeriChip would always be voluntary," said Keith Bolton, chief technology officer and a vice president at Applied Digital. "We would never provide it to a company that intended to coerce people to use it."578 |
| J. | Required Chip Could Solve Problem: Track Undocumented Immigrants: Chief Executive Officer: Miami Herald: March 10, 2002 |
| Required human microchip implants was suggested by Richard Sullivan, chief executive officer of Applied Digital Solutions, as a solution to tracking undocumented immigrants. |
| For all the arguments against chip implants turning people into human LoJacks, the fate of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is an example of how safety issues may override privacy concerns. Richard Sullivan, chief executive officer of Applied Digital Solutions, also suggests another application: helping to track undocumented immigrants. |
| The problem could be solved, he said, if "people were required to be chipped or had some combination of a device requiring them to be scanned and monitored at all times." |
| "I think it's not unreasonable to ask people who want to come to work in the country that they respect the rights of people who are citizens in the United States," Sullivan said.579 |
| K. | ADS Medical-Applications Director Dr. Richard Seelig: Right to Demand Pilots Required to Get Chipped: Time Magazine: March 11, 2002 |
| In a March 11, 2002 Time article entitled "Meet the Chipsons" Dr. Richard Seelig, Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) medical-applications director, states that "we have a right to demand" that the government or airlines have a right to require pilots to get chipped. |
| Security is part of the VeriChip business planÉ[Dr. Richard] Seelig[, medical-applications director] believes [an implantable computer device...with a microchip containing a few kilobytes of silicon memory and a tiny radio transmitter called ]VeriChip could function as a theft-proof, counterfeit-proof ID, like having a driver's license embedded under your skin. He suggests that airline crews could wear one to ensure that terrorists don't infiltrate the cockpit in disguise. "I travel quite a bit," he says, "and I want to make sure the pilots in that plane belong there." |
| Could the airlines or government really require pilots to get chipped? "I think we have a right to demand that," says Seelig. "Our lives are in their hands."580 |
| L. | Consider Implants for All Children: England: September 2002 |
| 1. | Professor Calls for Consideration of Implants for All Children: England: The Guardian: September 3, 2002 |
| Professor Kevin Warwick of Reading University called for consideration of implants for all children. |
| He [The designer of the chip, Kevin Warwick of the cybernetics department at Reading University] has called for an urgent government debate on the issue, and believes ministers should consider implants for all children... |
| Among the technical questions to be addressed is whether the chip should remain dormant in the limb until an emergency arose, or whether it should emit a signal 24 hours a day. |
| "This is why we need the debate to take place," he said. "In future it may be that only the police have the authority to allow the system to be activated. But, as things stand, parents can have that right themselves."581 |
| 2. | Did Professor Really Call for Consideration of Implants for All Children?: England: The Register: September 6, 2002 |
| An article in The Register by John Lettice, which quotes, in part, a "Girl To Get Tracker Implant To Ease Parents' Fears" September 3, 2002, article in The Guardian, questions Reading University Professor Kevin Warwick's call for consideration of implants for all children. |
| Most of the pieces published during [Professor] Warwick's media frenzy followed his agenda closely, and the Guardian's was no ex[c]e[p]tion. But towards the end you can see another agenda starting to poke out: |
| "He has called for an urgent government debate on the issue, and believes ministers should consider implants for all children." Could that possibly be what he really said? He went on: "This is why we need the debate to take place. In future it may be that only the police have the authority to allow the system to be activated. But, as things stand, parents can have that right themselves." Conjure up your own spectres from that little lot, people.582 |
| M. | "New Legislation Would Have To Be Passed To Require Offenders To Be Surgically Fitted with the Tags": Prisonplanet.com: Sunday Times of London: November 17, 2002 |
| Dominic Tonner writing in the November 17, 2002 Sunday Times of London noted that consideration was given to requiring the implantation of microchips in human beings. |
| Electronic tracking devices could be implanted into convicted paedophiles under plans being considered by the government. |
| Microchips would be surgically fitted beneath the skin under local anaesthetic, enabling officials to follow abusers' movements and monitor their heart rate and blood pressure. |
| The tagging technology is similar to that used to locate stolen cars. It works by using satellites or a mobile phone network to pinpoint the person on an electronic map via a signal from the implant... |
| The Home Office minister Hilary Benn revealed the government's plan to implant electronic tags into convicted paedophiles in a letter to the Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay. |
| "The (Home Office's) electronic monitoring team is . . . looking actively at the possibilities for using tracking technology to monitor offenders' whereabouts as they move from one place to another," he wrote. |
| New legislation would have to be passed to require offenders to be surgically fitted with the tags.583 |
| N. | "No One Is Forcing You to Have a VeriChip": The Boston Globe: May 20, 2003 |
| Applied Digital Solutions president Scott Silverman noted the role of "individual choice." |
| For ADS's Silverman, both the VeriChip and its future GPS-based version are a matter of individual choice. |
| "No one is forcing you to have a VeriChip. If you want a chip in your right arm you are going to know it is there because you will see it injected."584 |