July 20, 2004
The Chip... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes."
I spoke with a veterinarian last week who has two dogs and a cat of her own. She told me that her cat was missing less than 24 hours when she frantically called the national pet tag database people to make sure they had her contact information right. Her actions stood in clear relief to her usual professional advice: "Just be patient. Cat's almost always comes back." It sure sounded like hollow advice when she applied it to her very own cat.
For most of us, tagging our pets has been the primary application we've seen firsthand with Radio Frequency Identification tags - or RFID - so it's something of a leap to hear that these tiny chips are being implanted in humans, specifically the staff of the Attorney General of Mexico.
In case you're wondering, this is not just a matter of bureaucratic control - Mexico experienced several thousand kidnappings in 2003 alone and has suffered from widespread police corruption. So desperate times call for desperate measures - including using a brand new technology, whose consequences we can only begin to guess at.
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The particular chips used by Mexico's Attorney General's office are produced by Florida-based VeriChip. Scanners for these particular chips have a maximum range of 400 feet, so they're primary use is for controlling access to buildings and guaranteeing secure information. But GPS versions are in the works, so the ability to track anyone anywhere is just a matter of time. While we wait, these short-range chips are making inroads.
At this point, some 1,000 private citizens in Mexico have had them implanted with the idea that when they arrive at a hospital, their name, blood type and other pertinent information is immediately readable. How hard is it to imagine that at least some of those 160 people in the Attorney General's office, also have RFID tags in case they end up in the hospital?
And so the questions begin: How many RFID tags might each of us expect to carry around in the coming years? Would 50 be too many? And how would we know they were even implanted? If you went in for some same-day surgery, might you unexpectedly come out with something more?
These are serious questions. They will require serious answers. Not assurances. Answers. Answers that go beyond the physical safety of simply using these chips in humans, a question which the FDA is considering at this very moment.
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I don't want to get carried away here, but just for the heck of it, let's consider the remarks of VeriChip's Vice President for Marketing and Communications, Angela Fulcher. She states that out of the 7,000 VeriChips sold thus far, she's not completely sure, but she thinks that some 1,000 have been implanted in humans.
And while you're pondering that one, consider the press release which indicates that VeriChip's distributor for Brazil ordered up some 2,000 of the chips last October.
And who is that distributor? A Miami-based firm called MetroRisk Management Group, LLC. In addition to Brazil, MetroRisk also has exclusive VeriChip distribution rights to Ecuador and Paraguay, and claims to have assisted over 35 Fortune 500 companies "on matters ranging from counter terrorism and hostage recovery to business and e-intelligence."
And the clincher? The web sites informs us that Metro Risk was founded by a group of former government agents and operatives.
Anyone in the mood to write a thriller?
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
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