Microchips implanted in humans, doorways, ceilings, floors, garbage, food and clothing may soon make privacy a thing of the past, one author of the book "Spychips" said in a lecture at Essex County College Nov. 13. According to Liz McIntyre, radio frequency identification is an automatic data-capture technology that uses tiny tracking chips affixed to products.
The bugs have antennas that vary in size from a fingernail to a sheet of paper, McIntyre said.
Chips will be implanted in everything, from doorways and pets to currency, computers, and even human beings, McIntyre said. They will be transmitting signals to hidden databases, telling whoever is on the other end the person's whereabouts.
Those chips will be no larger than a grain of sand with the ability to store huge amounts of information, McIntyre said. They will monitor where you will be walking, how old are you, what you are doing in the bathroom, and even with whom you are having sex.
RFID was originally developed during World War II as a way to tell friend from foe in air combat by sending out a signal, McIntyre referenced on her Web site http://www.spychips.com. At the time, the name was IFF (Is It Friend or Foe). Years later, the technology was used to track stray animals by implanting chips under their skin.
Currently there are at least 103 companies, including VeriChip, IPICO, Tesco and IBM that are developing RFID technology.
Microchip implantation could be a large phenomenon, McIntyre said. Cash could be traced by implanting chips between layers of paper. Doorways, trees and stores would have unnoticeable readers collecting data on what a person does, prefers or likes. Big companies would use microchip technology to constantly monitor their employees and customers.
Levi Strauss, a company which produces clothing, already tested RFID technology in its clothing. So did Wal-Mart and Gillette.
In a May 2 email to McIntyre, Levi Strauss admitted testing RFID technology at a single store. "The retailer's test is designed to assess the consumer benefits of the technology for managing inventory and assuring that products are always in stock on the retail floor," said Mayre Hernandez, a spokeswoman for Levi Strauss.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the body that approves all new foods and drugs, approved RFID technology in 2004. According to the FDA website, medical chips can be implanted in a person. Each chip has a number that links to a database of identification, said McIntyre.
McIntyre said she had strong concerns about such technology, saying they violated privacy and consumer rights.
"U.S. Federal and State law enforcement agencies have long wanted to consolidate consumer purchase data in centralized databases. U.S. government is already putting RFID tags in passports," said McIntyre.
Asked about RFID technology, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland
Security said that "we are not using RFID." But according to the DHS Web site, RFID technology is already being used in passports.
The biggest threat comes from human tagging, McIntyre said. RFID tags can be implanted in human flesh. Repurposed animal tags were used to monitor Haitians at Guantanamo Bay in the 1990s, she said.
Empire North, a Danish company, has already produced a prototype of a high-powered sniper rifle that would implant a microchip in the body of a human being without any pain. According to the EN website, the DHS has expressed interest in such technology.
Currently there is no state or federal legislation against implanting microchips in humans except in Wisconsin.
