Fwd: HHS announces program to [forcibly] implant RFID tags in homeless

[Guest guest]

Bea Bernhausen

Sat, 3 Apr 2004 09:53:04 -0800 (PST)

HHS announces program to [forcibly] implant RFID

tags in homeless

 

First they came for the homeless, then they came for those on welfare, then they

came for the aged, then they came for the sick, then they came for newborn

babies---then they came for me....

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Sorry--there is no URL to the UPI article itself as they now charge subscription

rates. If anyone is d could you please send verification and the URL?

Kim's on the case...

 

Dear UPI,

I note that the UPI website at http://www.upi.com/ indicates that articles are

no longer available for public view and subscription is required. I am trying

to find out if the story below ( " HHS announces program to implant RFID tags in

homeless " ) is a bonafide UPI article. Could you please send me the URL and/or

verify the authenticity? Thank you,

KD Weber

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http://www.politechbot.com/pipermail/politech/2004-April/000573.html[Politech]

HHS announces program to implant RFID tags in homeless [priv]

 

DELETED

latest HHS outrage... please circulate widely! (REMOVEEMAIL)

Thu, 1 Apr 2004 09:26:25 -0500

Message-ID: < " >458A4338E341439F321483331CDB4S3414941E6B

 

 

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said

Thursday that it was about to begin testing a new technology designed to help

more closely monitor and assist the nation's homeless population.Under the pilot

program, which grew out of a series of policy academies held in the last two

years, homeless people in participating cities will be implanted with mandatory

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags that social workers and police can

use track their movements.The RFID technology was developed by HHS' Health

Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in partnership with five states,

including California and New York. " This is a rare opportunity to use advanced

technology to meet society's dual objectives of better serving our homeless

population while making our cities safer, " HRSA Administrator Betty James Duke

said.The miniscule RFID tags are no larger than a matchstick and will be

implanted subdermally, meaning under the skin. Data from RFID tracking

stations mounted on telephone poles will be transmitted to police and social

service workers, who will use custom Windows NT software to track movements of

the homeless in real time.In what has become a chronic social problem, people

living in shelters and on the streets do not seek adequate medical care and

frequently contribute to the rising crime rate in major cities. Supporters of

subdermal RFID tracking say the technology will discourage implanted homeless

men and women from committing crimes, while making it easier for government

workers to provide social services such as delivering food and medicine.Duke

called the RFID tagging pilot program " a high-tech, minimally-intrusive way for

the government to lift our citizens away from the twin perils of poverty and

crime. " Participating cities include New York City, San Francisco, Washington,

and Bethlehem, Penn.Participating states will receive grants of $14 million to

$58 million from the federal Projects for Assistance in

Transition from Homelessness (PATH) program, which was created under the

McKinney Act to fund support services for the homeless. A second phase of the

project, scheduled to be completed in early 2005, will wirelessly transmit live

information on the locations of homeless people to handheld computers running

the Windows CE operating system.A spokesman for the National Coalition for the

Homeless, which estimates that there are between 2.3 million and 3.5 million

people experiencing homelessness nationwide, said the pilot program could be

easily abused. " We have expressed our tentative support for the idea to HRSA,

but only if it includes privacy safeguards, " the spokesman said. " So far it's

unclear whether those safeguards will actually be in place by roll-out. " Chris

Hoofnagle, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said

the mandatory RFID program would be vulnerable to a legal challenge. " It is a

glaring violation of the Tenth Amendment, which says that powers

not awarded to the government are reserved to the people, and homeless people

have just as many Tenth Amendment rights as everyone else, " said Hoofnagle, who

is speaking about homeless privacy at this month's Computers Freedom and Privacy

conference in Berkeley, Calif.While HRSA's program appears to be the first to

forcibly implant humans with RFID tags, the technology is becoming more widely

adopted as retailers use it to track goods. Wal-Mart Stores said last year that

it will require its top 100 suppliers to place RFID tags on shipping crates and

pallets by January 2005. 2001-2004 United Press International

 

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