"How major corporations and government plan to track your every move with RFID", a book by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre. Very easy reading and very complete. You can get a copy at Amazon.com, and I highly recommend that you do. This is the other part of the story; sorry, but I got busy and didn't have the time to write this earlier.

RFID = Radio Frequency Identification. The MIT Auto-ID Center was formed in October 1999 with financial backing from Proctor & Gamble, Gillette, and the Uniform Code Council (the bar code people). The "EPC" (Electronic Product Code) was born, and the code they settled on contains 96 bits. To put that in perspective, it takes 23 bits to individually identify all automobiles made in one year; 33 bits could identify all the humans in the world today; 54 bits could individually identify the grains of rice marketed each year.

While human tracking was not a goal of this system originally, when it became obvious that it was possible, several companies submitted patent applications for ideas along those lines. A typical RFID tag can be read at about 5' by a typical reader, and a more sensitive reader can read an RFID at a much greater distance. Add a battery to the RFID and it becomes larger and heavier, like a toll road responder; the read range on those is 15-30'. Similar devices used for tracking wild animals can be read from a satellite. As technology advances, who can tell what is possible?

A reporter scoffed at the tracking idea when at lunch with one of the authors; the reporter said it would take way too many readers to actually track a person. However, it is not necessary to track the person continuously, but as the RFID is spotted by various readers here and there, and with an appropriate database, the person's movements can be tracked completely, and who the person was meeting can be easily inferred. The only question is who would want to track a person and had the resources to do it; I'll leave that to your imagination!

There is talk about an implantable RFID for tracking sex offenders by satellite. Whoa! Implantable? The VeriChip manufactured by Florida based Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) is a glass encased chip that is designed to be implanted in your upper arm. It is described as being the size of a grain of rice, but it is actually about 1/2" long and can be implanted by an oversized hypodermic needle. A photo of the chip is in the book. It has a treated surface that the body will attach to, so it won't migrate in the body. This also makes it difficult to remove surgically.

One of the first places this was used was in Mexico where the Attorney General had himself "chipped" and insisted that his staff follow suit. This allowed them easy access to a sensitive records center. Unfortunately, they became the target of kidnappers. Recently it was learned that the Attorney General had resigned and that brought up the question of removing the chip. It is possible, surgically, but not something a person would want to do at home. A California company has proposed implanting such a chip deeper in the body where it would become a MAJOR operation to remove it.

Claims have been made that a person having an implanted chip can be tracked by satellite, but that is not (yet) possible.

The VeriChip has been touted as a medical marvel, allowing medical personnel access to the patient's medical records, etc. California based Precision Dynamics Corp advertised that its RFID wristband could help remedy "the leading cause of hospital medical errors - misidentification". But the statement was later proved to be a lie and they had to remove it from their website.

Unfortunately an implanted VeriChip can become a medical problem, even to the point of requiring a Medic-Alert bracelet to warn medical personnel. ADS was bragging about the fact that the FDA had approved the use of the VeriChip, but upon searching public records, the authors found a letter from the FDA saying:
"The potential risks to health associated with the device are: adverse tissue reaction; ... ; electromagnetic interference; ... ; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) incompatibility; ..." The MRI problem is particularly serious in that metal in the body (the antenna) would have a tendency to heat up and burn the patient, and may even be forceably ejected through the skin.

The spychippers hope to create a transparent society where everything we own or do can be monitored and observed by others. They don't understand how damaging that could be and are not taking the warnings seriously. When someone is playing with fire, you want them to take sensible precautions. Instead they are behaving more like Alfred E. Neuman - "What, me worry?"

We are already seeing the beginning of universal personal identification in the Real ID Act recently passed by Congress. It would only take another terrorist act in this country to ratchet up the universal ID another level.

The most serious danger in this technology is its misuse or abuse. There is no way to safeguard the resulting data and no privacy guarantee. You know what hacking has done to the Internet; can you imagine what could happen if we were all chipped? The technology will improve, but that makes it all the more dangerous. If you are concerned about this, read the book and follow one or more of the author's suggestions for combating it.

Unpowered RFID chips can be pinged from several hundred meters using a low powered millimeter radar.

RFID is good for some things, but privacy isn't one of them.

Someone will make zappers for them soon, so don't sweat too much. Your cell phone is easier to find right now than an RFID chip.

Trent, the statement in the OP that bothered me most concerns where the future leads on this and connexe technologies .
I read ya when you say a cell phone is easier to find today.... but what about, in 10 years, when we learn to reduce the size of active RFID chips, learn to make better use of alternative power and , worst of all, leverage all the info derived from this new 'network'.

Have a buddy whos a true techno-phobe. No computer, no phone, ect. Hates that stuff. He went in for a colonostomy recently and I told him that I had read where they, the VA, were using the procedure as a chance to imbed a "ATC" (Anal Tracking Chip) up the wazoo so they could keep tabs on wacky veterans.
He found it none to humorous........

he he ... bet ya he's been nothing butt prunes ever since.

He got mad at me at the bar 'cuz every time he stood up from the stool I'd ask "Whats that faint beeping noise I hear?"

UNK!!! Your a pi$$er!!

CHiPs?

Mark of the Beast or a predecessor to it?

Seems like a good thing for terrorists (to track their movements), but those skunks could probably find the technology to thwart it!

In reply to:

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Mark of the Beast or a predecessor to it?

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Good question....but I'm going to say it's not the mark, but may well be part of "setting the stage"......

I like a suggestion that was posted here many moons ago.

Given they can track a cow and every one of its parents, aunts and uncles (pertinently to prove foreign cows have mad cow and domestic cows do not), US Immigrations Services should give each immigrant one cow.