[quote]“There’s nothing pulsing or sending out a signal,” said Mr Darks, who has had a chip in his own arm. “It’s not a GPS chip. My wife can’t tell where I am.”[/quote]

Well, that's true until a crime happens near him, and a nearby computer places him at the scene of the crime, and the cops requisition the private computer's history and put him at the scene of the crime, then compel him to testify as a witness.  (And if he was in a motel at the time with his mistress, she'd be ID'd there, along with him, if she had a chip too.)

And, now here's the kicker, what if his crime is speaking out against a less tolerant future government?  All the cops have to do is access permission from America's spineless and philosophically-vacant storefront merchants, and his RFID can be noted by any machine set up to do so.  (Just like the woman - covered by the Las Vegas Review Journal's columnist Vin Suprynowicz- who slapped her child in public for knocking down a display case - she was caught on camera, and her child was taken away by DCFS when the store's camera caught her license plate leaving, and the store full of busybodies reported her to the police...  The video cameras seemed harmless, but now they're raising her kids for her... because she didn't think to question or avoid them...)

Credit card companies at first fought to keep records of commercial transactions out of the hands of police.

But what's the first thing the folks on "CSI" do to track someone?  -They see where that person's credit cards are being used, and if they still are, they trace and locate.

So lets say that this "hip-cool chip-implanted dude" says something unpopular under our future "Norsefire" government...  He has to perform surgery on himself if he wants to avoid the gulag...

Now, that's fine by me... screw him if he can't see the danger in giving government goons an easy way to track him.

I myself have noticed that there are many laws against doing things that are not (in and of themselves) wrong.  I've also noticed that when a government outlaws private consensual behavior as "self destructive" it soon after outlaws the freedom of speech and debate about those initial bad laws that don't stand up to questioning (as the FDA has done with stevia rebaudiana, CRS-54, etc...).

If he wants the chip in his arm, then good luck and I hope it all works out swell.  When someone wants me to have a chip in my arm, they'd better disarm me first...

-Jake Witmer

Tin foil hat ravings aside, I'm not as impressed by RFID as I could be.

Why isn't a swiped ID badge or bracelet along with a password and voice print sufficient? What if someone compromises the RFID system and the locks have to be changed? Do we dig all those chips out of people's skins? Seems a lot harder than just replacing everyone's keys, passwords and badges.

From what I've read, biometrics can be faked, sometimes with appalling ease. RFID systems can be faked or thwarted as well. When are people going to listen to Bruce Schneier and realize there is no magic bullet for perfect, inassailible security?

Any security system is only as good as the people who use it. A Linux box with passwords on sticky notes in an unlocked, unwatched room is a disaster waiting to happen. Gadgets should not be a substitute for vigilence.

Tagging is not that difficult, it's really easy to remove. And its the beginning of the possibility of cybernetics in widespread use.  RFID has already been hackzored (http://rfidanalysis.org)
... but then again, I can pick a standard lock with homemade tools in only a couple seconds.  However, using implanted tags for access control to buisness's is just silly.  RFID tags are in wide spread use with removeable swipe cards right now  The building im sitting in right now uses a RFID system (I believe it is the TI DST set that has been proven unsecure).  I'm not against RFID at all, in fact I have tags that are waiting for implant in my own hand right now.  Something I have wanted to do for a very long time.  You just have to know the risks of technology entirely.  We use falliable technology for everything right now and no one is really bitching that much.  Anywho... take it easy.