November 23, 2006
Big Brother and RFID
During American Thanksgiving today, CNBC TV is running a long segment on "Big Brother" and surveillance societies. If you haven't seen it, there may be reruns later. Or check their website.
What I'm watching right now is a segment on the implanting of RFID chips into humans. One small company in the US supposedly made their employees get microchip implants. The representative that CNBC interviewed said, and I quote, "It's not Big Brotherish." No, of course not. Thank goodness that some US states such as Wisconsin have signed a law banning forced microchipping.
And of course what would a segment about RFID be without interviewing Scott Silverman, CEO of VeriChip's parent company. My interpretation of what he said was a skirt around the answer he should have given and instead said there was no tracking ability, or some such - using his hands to make "quote marks".
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. You can feel free to blast me, but I will never be convinced that implanted RFID is anything but Big Brotherish, despite my respect for RFID for "legitimate" uses. I've highlighted my reasoning, with facts, many times here. The people who've willingly implanted themselves have their own reasoning, and that's fine with me. In that sense, it's no different than a tattoo or a piercing (of which I have both) or other willing body modifications. My beef is with people like Silverman who are trying to force implantation on certain groups of people and then suggesting there's nothing wrong with it, and that privacy is not being violated.
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