Tag! You're ID!
Do you like movies about stolen identities set in a techno-world future? Are you a conspiracy theorist? Interested in or captivated by personal, financial, and workplace information security? Hollywood is betting on it with recent action thrillers such as Firewall and The Bourne Identity.
Science fiction sometimes blurs with reality. For the first time in the United States, radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips were implanted in living humans. Two employees of CityWatcher.com, as well as the CEO, recently volunteered to try using this technique to better secure the company’s data archives. The microchips (“tags”) are a product of VeriChip, the leading company in RFID devices and security. Picture using your employee identification badge to enter a building, only the badge is always with you -- inside you. The microchips are encoded with an electronic ID and were injected into the employees’ forearms, just beneath the skin. When scanned, the tags allow/deny access into the secure server centers.
CityWatcher.com CEO, Sean Darks, praises the VeriChip system for providing state-of-the-art security. Former WI Governor and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, is on VeriChip’s board of directors and announced last July that he will have a chip implanted. He advocates the chip as “an important and secure means of accessing medical records and other information." He has yet to have the tag injected under his own skin.
The technology is not new. However, it has recently surfaced in mainstream applications such as tracking pets, vehicles and warehoused commercial goods. VeriChip produces active and passive tags and is marketed as the world’s first and only patented, FDA-cleared, human-implantable RFID microchip for purposes ranging from security solutions for the identification, tracking, and protection of people, their assets, and their environments. How secure is the tag ID system? Critics have several arguments, including the possibility the chip may be read and cloned by others. Critics ask, “How much information is identified by these tags? Who controls the information? Who reads it? Who tracks it? For what purpose?”
Applying this identity technology to employees is sparking another ethical (and sure to be legal) debate on the abuse of privacy and civil liberties. What does this mean for employees? Individuals? Criminals? Government? Business? You?
Is this leading edge technology applied to keep us -- and our information -- secure? Or is it another example of “big brother” keeping watch? How do you see this technology affecting your workplace, your life?
Read about VeriChip
Posted by Amy Dennis, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group
Science fiction sometimes blurs with reality. For the first time in the United States, radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips were implanted in living humans. Two employees of CityWatcher.com, as well as the CEO, recently volunteered to try using this technique to better secure the company’s data archives. The microchips (“tags”) are a product of VeriChip, the leading company in RFID devices and security. Picture using your employee identification badge to enter a building, only the badge is always with you -- inside you. The microchips are encoded with an electronic ID and were injected into the employees’ forearms, just beneath the skin. When scanned, the tags allow/deny access into the secure server centers.
CityWatcher.com CEO, Sean Darks, praises the VeriChip system for providing state-of-the-art security. Former WI Governor and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, is on VeriChip’s board of directors and announced last July that he will have a chip implanted. He advocates the chip as “an important and secure means of accessing medical records and other information." He has yet to have the tag injected under his own skin.
The technology is not new. However, it has recently surfaced in mainstream applications such as tracking pets, vehicles and warehoused commercial goods. VeriChip produces active and passive tags and is marketed as the world’s first and only patented, FDA-cleared, human-implantable RFID microchip for purposes ranging from security solutions for the identification, tracking, and protection of people, their assets, and their environments. How secure is the tag ID system? Critics have several arguments, including the possibility the chip may be read and cloned by others. Critics ask, “How much information is identified by these tags? Who controls the information? Who reads it? Who tracks it? For what purpose?”
Applying this identity technology to employees is sparking another ethical (and sure to be legal) debate on the abuse of privacy and civil liberties. What does this mean for employees? Individuals? Criminals? Government? Business? You?
Is this leading edge technology applied to keep us -- and our information -- secure? Or is it another example of “big brother” keeping watch? How do you see this technology affecting your workplace, your life?
Read about VeriChip
Posted by Amy Dennis, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group
posted by The H.S. Group at
6:43 AM
3 Comments:
While the VeriChip might provide health-related benefits such as instant access to medical history, I see workplace complications far outnumbering the benefits.
First off, the average American changes jobs every 4-5 years, so what then becomes of the implant? Do you simply disable it and leave it implanted or does it need to be re-programmed? Also, will this eventually lead to an employee "tracking" program by the employer monitoring the location of the chip, thereby infringing on personal rights?
By
Anonymous, at 9:01 AM
I agree with the previous post that the system still seems too complicated and controversial. I wouldn't want to have a chip implanted and then have it malfunction and need it removed.
By
Anonymous, at 9:12 AM
I do not consider myself a conspiracy theorist, nor am I paranoid of the government getting in my personal business.However, this "tagging" system is way to weird for me.If my employer ever seriously considered such an option for security,I simploy would not allow my employer to chip me.I think there are other reasonable ways to address security concerns.Does this seem "normal" or "acceptable" or the inevitable way of the future to anyone?I'm curious about your opinions.
By
Anonymous, at 9:46 AM
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