Citywatcher.com, a surveillance equipment company caused much debate when two of its employees had microchips implanted in their arms.
The company said that the “chipping” of two workers with RFIDs — radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick — was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes. Currently, the company is encouraging hospitals to use the same chips to keep track of their "high-risk" patients -- diabetics and people with heart conditions or Alzheimer's disease.
The chips are basically medical-grade glass capsules which holds a silicon computer chip, a copper antenna and a "capacitor" that transmits data stored on the chip when prompted by an electromagnetic reader. These chips last for 10-15 years and are difficult to remove from the body (a surgeon must cut the scar tissue that forms around the chip).
With technology like this, it appears that the right to privacy can become a thing of the past. Apart from it being excessively invasive, another major concern is that the data can be accessed by unauthorized persons quite easily with use of readers which are now available in the market. For just $300, techno savvy thieves and stalkers can obtain 10-15 years of personal data. I fail to see why Citywatcher could not employ less invasive and less risky security measures.
Halamka, a physician who has been "chipped" quips, "My friends have commented to me that I'm 'marked' for life, that I've lost my anonymity. And to be honest, I think they're right."
No comments:
Post a Comment