Chips to Bar-Code Humans - FDA approved the VeriChip ID implant in humans
David Icke's site has new feature by him about the FDA approving a microchip for humans and he points out that he brought this to the world's attention 12 years ago.
Read all about it here:
http://www.icke-media.com/archives/000075.html#more
Informant: Steve Andrews
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US plans chip to bar-code humans
The US government could literally be getting under the skin of its citizens with the first futuristic microchip implant for humans getting a go ahead this week. The chip - VeriChip developed by the Digital Angel Corporation - has got Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its medical use, but it opens a critical window for radio tracking humans, it is pointed out. The radio frequency identification (RFID) chip is a minute, rice grain sized gadget that will be implanted sub-dermally, which some critics allege is akin to bar-coding humans like a can of beans on a superstore shelf. Though the chipmaker claims the chip is approved for only medical use, it could replace passports, ID cards and even credit cards. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already objected to the use of such chips, saying they would allow authorities "to sweep up the identities of everyone at a political meeting or protest march". The chipmaker said it stores a 16-digit identification number that could open the medical details of the person stored in a central database.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/889496.cms
--------
As you may know, last week the FDA approved the VeriChip ID implant for medical use in humans (along with a whole class of similar implants).
While VeriChip promoters discuss only the "benefits" of chip implantation, CASPIAN researchers have uncovered a host of serious potential medical dangers associated with the VeriChip.
We have outlined details in the press release below and in a special web report at:
http://www.spychips.com/reports/verichip-fda.html
As I have discussed on NPR, CNN, NBC, and elsewhere in the last week, the VeriChip is bad news for consumers, putting their health, privacy and security at risk.
Please read this material and share it with others.
In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN
http://www.spychips.com
http://www.nocards.org
http://www.boycottGillette.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 19, 2004
FDA Letter Raises Questions about VeriChip Safety, Data Security Implantable RFID device "poses potential risks to health"
Electrical hazards, MRI incompatibility, adverse tissue reaction, and migration of the implanted transponder are just a few of the potential risks associated with the Verichip ID implant device, according to an October 12, 2004 letter issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) has obtained a copy of the letter and posted it on the group's RFID website at http://www.spychips.com/reports/verichip-fda.html.
"For a device purported to help patients, the VeriChip has serious medical downsides," said Katherine Albrecht, Founder and Director of CASPIAN. "By omitting this information from their press material, the companies marketing the VeriChip have painted an inaccurately rosy picture of their product that could mislead consumers into believing the devices are completely safe."
Albrecht cites MRI incompatibility as perhaps the most serious issue. An MRI machine uses powerful magnetic fields coupled with pulsed radio frequency (RF) fields. According to the FDA's Primer on Medical Device Interactions with Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems, "electrical currents may be induced in conductive metal implants" that can cause "potentially severe patient burns."
"Patients contemplating a VeriChip implant need to know that the FDA has raised MRI incompatibity as a potential risk," she said. "If it's a choice between a potentially life-saving diagnostic procedure or a VeriChip implant, I believe most patients would choose the MRI."
In addition to outlining a number of health risks, the FDA letter also cites the risk of "compromised information security" among its concerns.
The VeriChip ID implant, about the size of a grain of rice, uses radio waves to transmit medical and financial account information to reader devices. There is a risk that these transmissions could be intercepted and duplicated by others or that the devices could be used to track an individual's movements and location.
"Once you're chipped, you can be identified by doorway portal readers without your knowledge," says Albrecht, referring to a VeriChip reader sold by value added resellers such as FindMe, LLC
http://www.findmellc.com/verichip_portal.asp . "That tracking potential, coupled with VeriChip's potential health risks make the VeriChip a very poor choice for medical patients seeking safety and security."
Albrecht said her group will be contacting the FDA to get more specifics about the dangers outlined in its letter. She also plans to contact the Digital Angel Corporation, manufacturer of the VeriChip; VeriChip, the technology licensee; and VeriChip's parent company, Applied Digital.
CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes since 1999. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their privacy and to encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the retail spectrum.
For more information, see:
http://www.spychips.com and http://www.nocards.org
You're welcome to duplicate and distribute this message to others who may find it of interest.
--------
May I scan the bar code in your arm?
Forget about temperature-taking and blood-pressure checking. In the bright, near future, the first step for people seeking medical care may be to have their bicep read by an electronic scanner seeking data stored on an implanted chip. A Florida company, Applied Digital Solutions, announced yesterday it had received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market in that country an implantable device known as a VeriChip. The grain-of-rice-sized chip contains a unique numeric identifier that hospitals and doctors offices could scan to gain Internet access to an individual's medical records.
In the initial rollout, the company will target people with chronic health problems -- and complicated medical records and needs -- as well as patients with cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
http://www.infowars.com/print/bb/barcode_arm.htm
--------
Privacy breach feared from human-implant chip:
The US government could literally be getting under the skin of its citizens with the first futuristic microchip implant for humans getting a go ahead this week. The chip -- VeriChip developed by the Digital Angel Corporation -- has got Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its medical use, but it opens a critical window for radio tracking humans, it is pointed out. The radio frequency identification (RFID) chip is a minute, rice grain sized gadget that will be implanted sub-dermally, which some critics allege is akin to bar-coding humans like a can of beans on a superstore shelf. Though the chipmaker claims the chip is approved for only medical use, it could replace passports, ID cards and even credit cards. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already objected to the use of such chips, saying they would allow authorities "to sweep up the identities of everyone at a political meeting or protest march". The chipmaker said it stores a 16-digit identification number that could open the medical details of the person stored in a central database.
http://athens-olympics-2004.newkerala.com/?action=fullnews&id=37169
--------
How to get consumers to swallow electronic tags
70 percent of the public are concerned about the implications of RFID
One of RFID's proponents explains how to sell the technology to consumers, while privacy activists keep fighting to protect them from secret RFID tagging. Last week's Enterprise Wireless Technology show in London heard a proponent of radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags explain some of the techniques that retailers should use to overcome customer opposition to this new technology, which some privacy groups vehemently oppose. Derren Bibby, chief technologist at IT services firm Noblestar, delivered the keynote address on RFID and told his audience that companies who deploy RFID will "need to educate people" about the technology. RFID tags, which are tiny chips that can be fitted to an object and tracked wirelessly, have generated a storm of controversy. Supporters say they will help retailers to run their supply chains and protect their goods from shoplifters. Opponents label them as a privacy nightmare that would give governments and big business the opportunity to monitor the behaviour and movement of citizens. Bibby was dismissive of RFID opponents such as CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering). "They're some kind of fringe group in America. These are the kind of people you need to watch out for," said Bibby, adding that the group wasn't going to last long.
Katherine Albrecht, director of CASPIAN and a doctoral researcher at Harvard University, has fiercely rebutted the suggestion that her group don't represent widely-held views. She points out that research has found that around 70 percent of the public are concerned about the implications of RFID.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39170565,00.htm
--------
Radio frequency ID devices give a signal of the future
At the heart of this emerging trend, playing key roles, Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser and others.
Inside Weyerhaeuser's technology lab in Federal Way, technicians are working to turn an ordinary cardboard box into a smart device. Using radio waves, a sensor on the box beams information about its contents and destination so they can be tracked by computer from the warehouse to the store shelf. It all happens in a split second as the box passes through an electronic gateway along a conveyor belt. The sensor tag, which has no battery and is usually dormant, wakes up when it comes close enough to a tag reader to receive power from its radio signal. Such technology, known as radio frequency identification, or RFID, promises to make scanning bar codes by hand obsolete. All the information resides inside a single chip the size of a grain of sand.
At the heart of this emerging trend, companies in the Northwest are playing key roles in developing and using RFID technology, including chip-design firm Impinj, RFID hardware maker Intermec, Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser and others.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002065830_rfid18.html
--------
Microchips in people, packaging and pets raise privacy questions
Implanting a microchip in a pet has become a common practice, but until last week, it may have seemed quite a stretch to implant one in a person. On Wednesday, a Florida company announced that the Food and Drug Administration had approved its microchip for embedding into humans to convey information about their medical conditions. The FDA's decision could move privacy concerns about the emerging technology to the forefront of public debate. The technology behind it involves radio frequency identification, or RFID, sensors that are being applied to all kinds of objects to hold information about them and track their whereabouts. Proposals for RFID tags run the gamut from tubes of toothpaste to passports and money.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002066022_chipprivacy18.html
--------
Feds approve human RFID implants
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a gimmick from Florida-based Applied Digital Solutions to chip people with RFID implants - previously confined to tracking animals - thereby making it easy to access their medical records, even when they cannot, or would rather not, cooperate. The tiny, passive RFID devices, called VeriChips, are injected under the hide. They do not contain the medical data in question, but instead store a unique ID number that is used to access records on a remote server maintained by Applied Digital, using a handheld reader. The chips are legal in numerous applications, but cannot be used as medical devices without FDA approval - which they now have got. So, what is the problem that this technology solves? We don't think there is one, unless doctors' offices are being flooded with people who can't recall their own medical histories.
Yes, some people do suffer from dementia, but these are most often found already in nursing facilities and hospitals, or at least supervised by a nurse or family member.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/14/human_rfid_implants/
--------
Cashless Society Update
Motorola, MasterCard trial RFID PayPass system
Motorola and MasterCard are conducting field tests of new mobile phones that include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips embedded in them as part of a cashless payment system dubbed PayPass. The phones will be equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) systems, which will allow them to communicate with nearby readers to, for instance, pay for small purchases or tickets for transit or events simply by passing their phone close to a reader. Once the phone and account has been identified by the RFID tag, the user's MasterCard account will be billed automatically by the network for the appropriate amount. MasterCard also sees potential for the phones as contactless readers, which it claims opens the door for "a variety of marketing and promotional applications", on which the company did not elaborate further.
http://www.infowars.com/print/bb/cashlesssociety.htm
From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - October 21st, 2004
Read all about it here:
http://www.icke-media.com/archives/000075.html#more
Informant: Steve Andrews
--------
US plans chip to bar-code humans
The US government could literally be getting under the skin of its citizens with the first futuristic microchip implant for humans getting a go ahead this week. The chip - VeriChip developed by the Digital Angel Corporation - has got Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its medical use, but it opens a critical window for radio tracking humans, it is pointed out. The radio frequency identification (RFID) chip is a minute, rice grain sized gadget that will be implanted sub-dermally, which some critics allege is akin to bar-coding humans like a can of beans on a superstore shelf. Though the chipmaker claims the chip is approved for only medical use, it could replace passports, ID cards and even credit cards. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already objected to the use of such chips, saying they would allow authorities "to sweep up the identities of everyone at a political meeting or protest march". The chipmaker said it stores a 16-digit identification number that could open the medical details of the person stored in a central database.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/889496.cms
--------
As you may know, last week the FDA approved the VeriChip ID implant for medical use in humans (along with a whole class of similar implants).
While VeriChip promoters discuss only the "benefits" of chip implantation, CASPIAN researchers have uncovered a host of serious potential medical dangers associated with the VeriChip.
We have outlined details in the press release below and in a special web report at:
http://www.spychips.com/reports/verichip-fda.html
As I have discussed on NPR, CNN, NBC, and elsewhere in the last week, the VeriChip is bad news for consumers, putting their health, privacy and security at risk.
Please read this material and share it with others.
In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN
http://www.spychips.com
http://www.nocards.org
http://www.boycottGillette.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 19, 2004
FDA Letter Raises Questions about VeriChip Safety, Data Security Implantable RFID device "poses potential risks to health"
Electrical hazards, MRI incompatibility, adverse tissue reaction, and migration of the implanted transponder are just a few of the potential risks associated with the Verichip ID implant device, according to an October 12, 2004 letter issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) has obtained a copy of the letter and posted it on the group's RFID website at http://www.spychips.com/reports/verichip-fda.html.
"For a device purported to help patients, the VeriChip has serious medical downsides," said Katherine Albrecht, Founder and Director of CASPIAN. "By omitting this information from their press material, the companies marketing the VeriChip have painted an inaccurately rosy picture of their product that could mislead consumers into believing the devices are completely safe."
Albrecht cites MRI incompatibility as perhaps the most serious issue. An MRI machine uses powerful magnetic fields coupled with pulsed radio frequency (RF) fields. According to the FDA's Primer on Medical Device Interactions with Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems, "electrical currents may be induced in conductive metal implants" that can cause "potentially severe patient burns."
"Patients contemplating a VeriChip implant need to know that the FDA has raised MRI incompatibity as a potential risk," she said. "If it's a choice between a potentially life-saving diagnostic procedure or a VeriChip implant, I believe most patients would choose the MRI."
In addition to outlining a number of health risks, the FDA letter also cites the risk of "compromised information security" among its concerns.
The VeriChip ID implant, about the size of a grain of rice, uses radio waves to transmit medical and financial account information to reader devices. There is a risk that these transmissions could be intercepted and duplicated by others or that the devices could be used to track an individual's movements and location.
"Once you're chipped, you can be identified by doorway portal readers without your knowledge," says Albrecht, referring to a VeriChip reader sold by value added resellers such as FindMe, LLC
http://www.findmellc.com/verichip_portal.asp . "That tracking potential, coupled with VeriChip's potential health risks make the VeriChip a very poor choice for medical patients seeking safety and security."
Albrecht said her group will be contacting the FDA to get more specifics about the dangers outlined in its letter. She also plans to contact the Digital Angel Corporation, manufacturer of the VeriChip; VeriChip, the technology licensee; and VeriChip's parent company, Applied Digital.
CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes since 1999. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their privacy and to encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the retail spectrum.
For more information, see:
http://www.spychips.com and http://www.nocards.org
You're welcome to duplicate and distribute this message to others who may find it of interest.
--------
May I scan the bar code in your arm?
Forget about temperature-taking and blood-pressure checking. In the bright, near future, the first step for people seeking medical care may be to have their bicep read by an electronic scanner seeking data stored on an implanted chip. A Florida company, Applied Digital Solutions, announced yesterday it had received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market in that country an implantable device known as a VeriChip. The grain-of-rice-sized chip contains a unique numeric identifier that hospitals and doctors offices could scan to gain Internet access to an individual's medical records.
In the initial rollout, the company will target people with chronic health problems -- and complicated medical records and needs -- as well as patients with cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
http://www.infowars.com/print/bb/barcode_arm.htm
--------
Privacy breach feared from human-implant chip:
The US government could literally be getting under the skin of its citizens with the first futuristic microchip implant for humans getting a go ahead this week. The chip -- VeriChip developed by the Digital Angel Corporation -- has got Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its medical use, but it opens a critical window for radio tracking humans, it is pointed out. The radio frequency identification (RFID) chip is a minute, rice grain sized gadget that will be implanted sub-dermally, which some critics allege is akin to bar-coding humans like a can of beans on a superstore shelf. Though the chipmaker claims the chip is approved for only medical use, it could replace passports, ID cards and even credit cards. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already objected to the use of such chips, saying they would allow authorities "to sweep up the identities of everyone at a political meeting or protest march". The chipmaker said it stores a 16-digit identification number that could open the medical details of the person stored in a central database.
http://athens-olympics-2004.newkerala.com/?action=fullnews&id=37169
--------
How to get consumers to swallow electronic tags
70 percent of the public are concerned about the implications of RFID
One of RFID's proponents explains how to sell the technology to consumers, while privacy activists keep fighting to protect them from secret RFID tagging. Last week's Enterprise Wireless Technology show in London heard a proponent of radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags explain some of the techniques that retailers should use to overcome customer opposition to this new technology, which some privacy groups vehemently oppose. Derren Bibby, chief technologist at IT services firm Noblestar, delivered the keynote address on RFID and told his audience that companies who deploy RFID will "need to educate people" about the technology. RFID tags, which are tiny chips that can be fitted to an object and tracked wirelessly, have generated a storm of controversy. Supporters say they will help retailers to run their supply chains and protect their goods from shoplifters. Opponents label them as a privacy nightmare that would give governments and big business the opportunity to monitor the behaviour and movement of citizens. Bibby was dismissive of RFID opponents such as CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering). "They're some kind of fringe group in America. These are the kind of people you need to watch out for," said Bibby, adding that the group wasn't going to last long.
Katherine Albrecht, director of CASPIAN and a doctoral researcher at Harvard University, has fiercely rebutted the suggestion that her group don't represent widely-held views. She points out that research has found that around 70 percent of the public are concerned about the implications of RFID.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39170565,00.htm
--------
Radio frequency ID devices give a signal of the future
At the heart of this emerging trend, playing key roles, Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser and others.
Inside Weyerhaeuser's technology lab in Federal Way, technicians are working to turn an ordinary cardboard box into a smart device. Using radio waves, a sensor on the box beams information about its contents and destination so they can be tracked by computer from the warehouse to the store shelf. It all happens in a split second as the box passes through an electronic gateway along a conveyor belt. The sensor tag, which has no battery and is usually dormant, wakes up when it comes close enough to a tag reader to receive power from its radio signal. Such technology, known as radio frequency identification, or RFID, promises to make scanning bar codes by hand obsolete. All the information resides inside a single chip the size of a grain of sand.
At the heart of this emerging trend, companies in the Northwest are playing key roles in developing and using RFID technology, including chip-design firm Impinj, RFID hardware maker Intermec, Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser and others.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002065830_rfid18.html
--------
Microchips in people, packaging and pets raise privacy questions
Implanting a microchip in a pet has become a common practice, but until last week, it may have seemed quite a stretch to implant one in a person. On Wednesday, a Florida company announced that the Food and Drug Administration had approved its microchip for embedding into humans to convey information about their medical conditions. The FDA's decision could move privacy concerns about the emerging technology to the forefront of public debate. The technology behind it involves radio frequency identification, or RFID, sensors that are being applied to all kinds of objects to hold information about them and track their whereabouts. Proposals for RFID tags run the gamut from tubes of toothpaste to passports and money.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002066022_chipprivacy18.html
--------
Feds approve human RFID implants
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a gimmick from Florida-based Applied Digital Solutions to chip people with RFID implants - previously confined to tracking animals - thereby making it easy to access their medical records, even when they cannot, or would rather not, cooperate. The tiny, passive RFID devices, called VeriChips, are injected under the hide. They do not contain the medical data in question, but instead store a unique ID number that is used to access records on a remote server maintained by Applied Digital, using a handheld reader. The chips are legal in numerous applications, but cannot be used as medical devices without FDA approval - which they now have got. So, what is the problem that this technology solves? We don't think there is one, unless doctors' offices are being flooded with people who can't recall their own medical histories.
Yes, some people do suffer from dementia, but these are most often found already in nursing facilities and hospitals, or at least supervised by a nurse or family member.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/14/human_rfid_implants/
--------
Cashless Society Update
Motorola, MasterCard trial RFID PayPass system
Motorola and MasterCard are conducting field tests of new mobile phones that include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips embedded in them as part of a cashless payment system dubbed PayPass. The phones will be equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) systems, which will allow them to communicate with nearby readers to, for instance, pay for small purchases or tickets for transit or events simply by passing their phone close to a reader. Once the phone and account has been identified by the RFID tag, the user's MasterCard account will be billed automatically by the network for the appropriate amount. MasterCard also sees potential for the phones as contactless readers, which it claims opens the door for "a variety of marketing and promotional applications", on which the company did not elaborate further.
http://www.infowars.com/print/bb/cashlesssociety.htm
From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - October 21st, 2004
Starmail - 21. Okt, 16:09
