Verichips:
An Invasion Of Privacy?
By Stephanie Puder
20 March, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Recently
while doing research for an oral presentation, I came across very important
information that everyone needs to be aware of due to the fact that
it poses a threat to us all. Surprisingly this threat has not been covered
very much by the media, so many are completely unaware of its existence;
this is why I’m writing so everyone can know before it’s
to late. Although it sounds like science fiction, microchips meant to
be implanted into human beings are here, they are being marketed world
wide, and have even been approved by the FDA, and yes people have already
begun to get them implanted. They work by giving off a unique radio
signal that can be read by a compatible scanner. They are about the
size of a grain of rice and are implanted with an injection just like
a flu shot. They are being sold on the free market for affordable prices.
These microchips are being presented as a miracle technology that can
only do remarkable good; however, they will actually cause much more
harm than good.
These chips are being manufactured by the VeriChip Corporation which
is a subsidiary of the Applied Digital Solutions Corporation. At the
time being these chips have only been approved by the FDA to retrieve
medical history. For example if someone were to come into a hospital
unconscious a chip in their arm could be scanned in order to know their
medical history. However this is only in America other countries are
using these chips for things such as bar tabs and VIP passes like at
a European night club the Baja Beech Club and as security passes in
a Mexican crime database.
Although in America these
chips have only been approved for one thing, Applied Digital Solutions
and the VeriChip Corporation have many more plans for them. Keith Boltan
the Vice President of VeriChip Corporation hopes to use these chips
in a global identification system one day. Applied Digital Solutions
also hopes to use them to replace credit cards, social security cards,
security passes and more. They want to use them to track kidnap victims,
criminals, and government employees as well. The CEO of Applied Digital
Solutions, Scott Silverman, expects these chips to be the only means
of accessing any information within 10-15 years. These scenarios have
to do with some type of enforcement whether it is voluntary or by force,
and that is exactly what people against these chips fear. These chips
have the capability of doing great harm that far exceeds their benefits;
they need to be subjected to either extreme regulation or even prohibition
in order to prevent very real and horrible possibilities around the
world.
Applied Digital Solution’s
plans to use these chips will cause dire consequences and violations
of our rights and liberties. If these chips have the GPS tracking capabilities
then our 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights along with our privacy rights
will be violated. Even if there are no tracking capabilities our privacy
rights will still be violated due to the fact that anyone with a compatible
scanner from as far away as 3-30 feet (according to different sources)
could scan your information without your permission. If these chips
are made mandatory for anything like employment or education then our
14th amendment rights and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 will be violated
for anyone who doesn’t want a chip. Our first amendment rights
of free exercise and the establishment clause will also be violated
due to the fact that groups such as Christians are extremely against
these chips because they are similar to something prophesized about
in the book of Revelations. Revelations 13:16-18 describes people being
forced to receive the mark of the beast in order to buy or sell anything
which sounds a lot like Scott Silverman’s plan. If these chips
are enforced then Christians and others will not be able to freely exercise
their religion.
You might be thinking there
is no way our government could enforce these chips due to our rights;
however, government employees, felons, prisoners, and people on probation
often have to sign away many of their rights. Children and the elderly
are usually under someone else’s control through parental rights
and powers of attorney. We’ve also seen from the Patriot Act and
the Japanese American Relocation during WWII that many of our rights
can be drastically curtailed during an emergency or wartime situation.
What will happen in other countries where they don’t necessarily
have Constitutions and Bill of Rights to hold these chips back? What
would someone like Saddam Hussein have done with this technology? Then
there is Scott Silverman’s plan: one day all of the documents
necessary to do anything in this country (social security cards, licenses,
birth certificates, bank account information, etc.) are held within
microchips. At the time being Applied Digital Solutions maintains a
strict voluntary rule when it comes to these chips; however, if there
is no way to access any information without one what choice do we really
have? These chips need to be prevented from having the capability to
take away our rights.
These chips have been proposed to track criminals, x-criminals, and
kidnap victims; however, criminals can adapt to this technology just
as they have towards security systems today. Criminals will realize
that they can cut their own chips out, and even worse attack someone
and cut out their chip for the perfect fake identity. The reason most
people give for supporting these chips is because of the possibility
of tracking kidnap victims and runaways; however, this application will
fail as well. Once these chips are common kidnappers will know about
them; they will know that they are placed in the right triceps as a
standard. If they want to kidnap someone they could just cut the chip
out or find a way to scramble the signal. When it comes to runaways
we must remember that many are trying to escape an unsafe environment;
tracking them down and dragging them back could prevent them from ever
getting the chance to ask for help.
Even these chip’s
proposed applications have negative effects and consequences; even what
the FDA has approved them for has consequences. When the FDA approved
these chips for the retrieval of medical information they also expressed
some concerns for the possibilities of adverse tissue reaction, chip
migration throughout the body, and the unknown effects from the radio
signal it gives off; however, they were the most concerned about MRIs.
MRIs are those big x-ray machines; they use pulsed radio frequencies
and magnetic fields which the FDA fears could induce conductive metal
implants to cause severe patient burns. The FDA also expressed concern
for the easily accessible information in the chips which could be scanned
and duplicated without your permission. The chips and scanners are sold
on the free market right now to anyone and can scan from at least 3
feet away. This is an identity thief and stalkers dream. Some claim
these chips will prevent crime when they will actually worsen it or
fail to prevent it. When it comes to these chips we need to decide what
is more important: possibly reaping from the benefits or preventing
the very serious consequences.
These chips will not stop
at voluntary medical information retrieval unless they are extremely
regulated or prohibited all together. We need to be cautious and aware
of these chips and their possibilities. I honestly do not believe our
government will enforce these chips; however, I do believe that Scott
Silverman’s plan is a very real possibility. Right now our children,
the future voters of this country, are being desensitized to this idea.
These chips are being used in their Elementary School Student IDs, in
the products they use as a type of bar code, and even in their pets:
“to keep them safe.” Imagine for a moment that Scott Silverman’s
dream came true and there was no way to access any information without
a microchip. Would you be able to enter your place of work, or access
the money in your bank account, or buy groceries? Would you be able
to do anything that is necessary to survive in our society? We have
to reject these chips and encourage extreme regulation or prohibition,
or we will allow them the ability to strip away our most basic and natural
of human rights: the right of choice. That is because if these chips
are enforced, by law or necessity, then we will only be given two choices:
get chipped or don’t survive, and what choice does that really
leave us with? So once these chips start coming out into the public
eye in sheep’s clothing remember what’s really growling
beneath. Want to know more? Just type VeriChip into a search engine
like www.google.com and you will see tons of information.