Big Brother Gets Under Your Skin with Microchip

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Big Brother Gets Under Your Skin with Microchip

 

 

http://www.americanfreepress.net/Censored/13_02%20Big%20Brother%20Gets%20Und

er%20Yo.htm

 

The first microchips will be implanted in U.S. citizens. Where will it lead?

 

 

 

Exclusive to American Free Press

 

By Mike Finch

 

 

 

VeriChip, a hotly debated implantable micro chip, is currently being

reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration for use in humans as an

implanted ID that would store medical or security information.

 

It is initially touted as a means of quickly providing critical medical

information, especially in cases where the patient is unable to communicate.

But civil libertarians have expressed concern that eventually such chips

could contain all of an individual’s private information where it could be

abused in “Big Brother” fashion.

 

Applied Digital Solutions Inc. (ADS) on Feb. 7 announced the formation of

VeriChip™ Corporation, as a new subsidiary. On Dec. 19, 2001, ADS first

announced the VeriChip, an implantable device about the size of a grain of

rice that can be used to store information about the person who carries the

implant.

 

“Miniaturized, implantable identification technology with multiple medical,

security, and emergency applications” is the motto of VeriChip Corporation.

 

The VeriChip stores six lines of text. It emits a 125 kHz radio signal that

can be picked up by a special scanner up to four feet away, whereby the

stored info can be downloaded into a monitoring device.

 

ADS and VeriChip plan to market the chip in the United States as a medical

device that would allow hospital workers to download medical information

instantly when they are handling implanted patients.

 

VeriChip initially stated that the chip would be marketed solely as a

voluntary implant for medical purposes, but recently has asked for

government permission to market the chip to be used for ID purposes in

airports, nuclear power plants and other high-security facilities, reports

CBN news.

 

The VeriChip is not the first of its kind. In 2000, ADS quietly introduced

its “Angel” technology, the precursor to the VeriChip. Angel technology was

an inplantable chip much like the VeriChip that could be used to track

humans by Global Positioning Satellite.

 

Angel technology was proposed in a two-step fashion: First, as an external

wristwatch receiver and then as an implant. Angel’s marketing also focused

on its potential medical uses, for use on people with Alzheimer’s and other

mind-impairing diseases, but at the time there was little public support for

such a device.

 

CEO Richard Sullivan remarked, “With the recent tragedy [sept. 11], it is

our duty to expedite the development process and offer Digital Angel in its

current beta form to the rescue efforts of all agencies connected with

national and personal safety and security,” adding that “Digital Angel has

many applications that can be used during this national tragedy.”

 

Since the chip has been announced, it has sparked a great deal of debate in

media, provoking headlines like “VeriChip likely to face privacy issue

debate,” and “Company wants to get under your skin with ID,” and “A

microchip makes it’s mark: VeriChip and the beast.”

 

Supporters say that the VeriChip is an advancement of technology that will

be used to store medical information and perhaps be used to increase

security. But many worry that such a device would take away from individual

privacy, and also worry that such a chip might be required, or forced upon

citizens.

 

Christians have been reported to criticize the VeriChip due to its likeness

to the Bible’s reference to “the mark of the beast” in the book of

Revelation where it says:

 

 

 

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to

receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one could buy

or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number

of his name. (Rev. 13:16, NIV Translation)

 

Others are less skeptical about the chip. A civilian family of three in Boca

Raton, Fla., has already volunteered to be the first humans to be implanted

with the microchip, though Dr. Richard Seelig, medical advisor for ADS, had

already given himself the implant in advance of FDA approval.

 

The family of three is among 50 or so volunteers who are ready to get the

implant in early tests. They are only waiting for FDA approval.

 

Seelig implanted a chip in his arm and his hip area a few months ago.

 

“Yes, it’s in my right forearm and there is no bump or anything that you can

really see,” Seelig told CBN News.

 

If there are no delays the implantable microchip will be on the market in

less than a year, reports Stephanie Murphy of The Palm Breach Daily News The

implant will cost around $200.

 

On Jan. 24 ADS announced that VeriChip had signed a Latin American marketer

as its first customer. The initial orders “exceed $300,000 with anticipated

first year revenue approaching $2 million. Additional international orders,

valued at $1.5 million are under legal review and nearing completion,”

reports the Palm Beach Business Wire.

 

The technology for the VeriChip was originally developed by Destron Fearing,

a subsidiary of ADS, to track laboratory animals and livestock and help

locate lost pet cats and dogs.