The Surveillance Next Generation - VeriChip on the Verge of Expanding

               A major debate is on its way.  Its focus will be on a new technology that is growing rapidly and changing how we interact with our objects, the environment, and each other.  The VeriChip is an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) chip that is implanted in humans, allowing for us to be quickly identified and for our personal information to be accessed with ease.  Its use can have many practical advantages, but many are reluctant, in fear of sacrificing their privacy.

                VeriChip is the only RFID chip in the United States approved for implanting in humans.  The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, is inserted into the back of the arm via a hyperdermic needle.  Once inserted in the arm, the tissue grows around the chip, becoming a part of the body.  The chip contains a 16-digit number, which is scanned by a machine and provides access to a database containing personal information about the person.

                The chip has many practical uses, which is why it is being used in senior homes so that seniors can be tracked and identified quickly and effectively.  It is especially useful when seniors have certain memory impairments that make it difficult for them to identify themselves.  The VeriChip has also been used for identifying babies and preventing them from being given to the wrong parents.  In times of disaster, when there are many bodies to be identified, the VeriChip can be used to catalogue, manage and identify the bodies so they can be returned to their families.

                In the future, the VeriChip could become a replacement for all current identification, eliminating the need for a debit card, credit card, health card, or even our driver’s license.  Critical medical information could be quickly accessed from patients in emergency situations, and waiting times could be reduced.  Some of these prospects seem very promising for a life of convenience, but at what price?  What would the public have to sacrifice in order to gain such a life?

                Many people are not at ease with the prospect of having a chip implanted within them, making them traceable almost wherever they go.  What if one day, every entrance to every public building had a scanner that would identify you as you passed it, allowing for your whereabouts to be monitored wherever these scanners are present?  Some offices want to implant their employees with RFID devices, so that their whereabouts can be monitored.  Currently, California is the only state that bans offices from forcing workers to be implanted with a chip. 

                What could this mean to the public if people are without a job because they refuse to wear an RFID chip?  Would you let yourself become tagged in order to keep your job?  This may be the beginning of the plot described in the Zeitgeist movie, in which the government is working on tagging the world population.  This view says they will be used to keep people in order by turning off their chip if they step out of line, thereby making them obsolete in our society.  This view is very biased, but it does make one question a possible future with the VeriChip.  Is it possible that we may one day be forced to conform to this new technology as it grows in our society?  If the VeriChip becomes our only way of accessing things such as our money, our vehicles, or our homes, then it could very well become the “key” to our lives.  If this happens, then being implanted with the VeriChip would no longer be a matter of privacy, but a matter of survival. 

                 Whether or not this ever becomes a reality, it is clear that this technology will directly or indirectly change our lives.  The VeriChip has the potential of improving our lives in many ways, but risking our privacy is a big concern.  In order for us to benefit from what this technology has to offer and to protect our rights at the same time, we must always be aware of it.  Seek out information about the VeriChip and make yourself conscious of current developments in the technology.  A public that informs themselves is a smart public.  In the case of the VeriChip, we must avoid the phrase, “What we don’t know can’t hurt us”.

 References

Zeitgeist: The Movie (2006), see link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7se4gFTCys