WISCONSIN BANS FORCED HUMAN RFID CHIPPING

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WISCONSIN BANS FORCED HUMAN RFID CHIPPING

Sat, 3 Jun 2006 00:58:21 -0700

 

 

By Liz McIntyre & Katherine Albrecht

 

June 1, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

 

 

 

Civil libertarians cheered yesterday upon news that Wisconsin

Governor Jim Doyle signed a law making it a crime to require an

individual to be implanted with a microchip. Activists and authors

Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre joined the celebration, predicting

this move will spell trouble for the VeriChip Corporation, maker of

the VeriChip human microchip implant.

 

The VeriChip is a glass encapsulated Radio Frequency

Identification tag that is injected into the flesh to uniquely number

and identify people. The tag can be read silently and invisibly by

radio waves from up to a foot or more away, right through clothing.

The highly controversial device is also being marketed as a way to

access secure areas, link to medical records, and serve as a payment

device when associated with a credit card.

 

" We're not even aware of anyone attempting to forcibly implant

microchips into people, " says Albrecht. " That lawmakers felt this

legislation was necessary indicates a growing concern that the

company's product could pose a serious threat to the public down the

road. "

 

Although the company emphasizes that its chip is strictly

voluntary, recent statements suggest this could easily change.

VeriChip Chairman of the Board Scott Silverman has been promoting the

VeriChip as a partial solution to immigration concerns, proposing it

as a way to register guest workers, verify their identities as they

cross the border, and " be used for enforcement purposes at the

employer level. " He told interviewers on the Fox News Channel that the

company has " talked to many people in Washington about using it. "

 

The company has also confirmed it has been in talks with the

Pentagon about replacing military dog tags with VeriChip implants.

 

Wisconsin's anti-human-chipping law comes at a particularly bad

time for VeriChip Corporation because it has an initial public

offering of its stock in the works, McIntyre observes. " The company

has been losing millions of dollars and has been counting on public

acceptance to stem its losses and prove its future. The people have

spoken. They don't want RFID devices in their flesh, and we expect

other states will join Wisconsin in prohibiting forced chipping. "

 

Albrecht and McIntyre have dogged the VeriChip Corporation,

revealing medical and security flaws in its human chip and warning

about its serious privacy and civil liberties downsides in their book

" Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your

Every Move with RFID. "

 

Wisconsin's new law was introduced as Assembly Bill 290 by

Representative Marlin D. Schneider (D) and was passed unanimously by

both houses of the Wisconsin State Legislature this spring. The law

makes it illegal to require an individual to have a microchip implant

and subjects a violator to a fine of up to $10,000 per day.

 

© 2006 - Liz McIntyre -

 

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Liz McIntyre is a consumer privacy expert and author of Spychips:

How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move

with RFID. In this explosive book, McIntyre and co-author Katherine

Albrecht reveal how organizations like Procter & Gamble, Gillette,

Wal-Mart, and even the U.S. Postal Service plan to use tiny computer

chips smaller than a grain of sand to track everyday objects-and even

people-keeping tabs on everything you own and everywhere you go.

 

Katherine Albrecht is a privacy advocate and co-author of

Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your

Every Move with RFID. Albrecht has testified on RFID technology before

the Federal Trade Commission, the California state legislature, the

European Commission, and the Federal Reserve Bank, and she has given

over a thousand television, radio and print interviews to news outlets

all over the world. Her efforts have been featured on CNN, NPR, the

CBS Evening News, Business Week, and the London Times, to name just a few.

 

Web Sites: SpyChips.com and NoCards.org

 

E-Mail: liz

 

http://www.newswithviews.com/McIntyre/Liz6.htm