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Forget Nip & Tuck -- Could There Be an RFID Implant in Your Future?
Posted by dmax69 on August 24, 2004 at 11:57 AM | Comments (3)
Is the Idea of implanting a passive RFID tag inside your body something that raises your Orwellian fears? Do you get Biblical "End-of-Days" shivers? Or is it a good thing, a next logical step, an inevitable development in the teleological vector of technological triumph?
Michael Kanellos' compelling article on C/Net yesterday must give us pause; how likely is it that a passive RFID arm tag will be a required implant in our increasingly security-conscious world? Would you submit? What if "implant or jail" was your only choice? Could such a system ever be technically viable let alone mandated?
RFID is the future, right? Walmart and the U.S. DoD can't be wrong ...
We can cite a litany of advantages to such systems, many of which are in use today: tracking small animals, keeping inventory of feed stock, monitoring those who cannot or will not conform to accepted social norms among others. So if it's good enough for your pet, your hamburger, your recently-released homicidal cousin or your aunt with Alzheimer's, then why not you?
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Comments
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hmm ..
Reminds me of this TV ad recently for this bank that I can't recall the name of, where the customers are standing in line, with barcodes tattooed across their foreheads, waiting to be scanned by a stern clerk. Wonder why's that ...
Posted by: sumitkishore on August 24, 2004 at 12:59 PM
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ID Theft
Ensuring that the tag couldn't be removed without destroying it, would probably eliminate the low cost advantage of RFID tags. Without this, RFID could only be used for relatively low grade security.
Posted by: mthornton on August 25, 2004 at 06:45 AM
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If it's the government they will just mandata everyone to pay the expensive procedure of implanting it thusly it can't be removed.
This could involve bonding to a bone for example, bone regrowth would relatively quickly embed it in bony tissue (certainly in children, making mandatory implantation at an early age even more important).
As for ID theft, that would require far more than stealing a passport and putting on a new photograph.
You'd need to (whatever implantation is used) abduct the victim to a medical facility, surgically remove the implant and surgically insert it into yourself.
Not a lot of criminal organisations have the resources to pull off something like that (plus the timeframe for using the stolen ID would be shorter than with passports which can go weeks before people miss them).
Posted by: jwenting on October 04, 2004 at 02:14 AM
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