Applied Digital Solutions wants to put your credit card under your skin

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16975

A company called Applied Digital Solutions wants you to undergo a surgical procedure to implant a tiny RFID microchip in your arm. Why would you want to do this? Because "Radio Frequency ID" chips will eliminate the heavy burden of having to carry credit cards and remember your ATM numbers. Instead, your arm becomes your card and ID number -- simply run your arm under a scanner and your embedded radio chip sends a digital signal to the computer, allowing you to complete your transaction. ADS calls its microchip "VeriPay."

There's only one rational reason that ADS executives think we'll submit to this: They're insane. Insane, but serious. They insist that this technological leap is needed because many people lose their credit cards. "VeriPay solves that problem," says a corporate PR flak, cheerfully noting that ADS's chip "is subdermal and very difficult to lose. You don't leave it sitting in the back seat of a taxi," he said.

Subdermal or not, your ID number can still be stolen by a geeky thief who rigs up a device to intercept your radio-transmitted number, then plays it back later to your ATM machine, emptying your account.

If your number is stolen, or if you simply switch credit-card companies or banks, what are you to do? No problem, says the PR guy: "If you don't want it any more... you can go to a doctor and have it removed. I call it an opt-out feature," he said gaily. Swell! Instead of simply calling your credit card company to cancel your card, you'd have to call a surgeon. This is progress?
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they will even give you a $50 discount

the mark of the Beast?!

Hey! I know! Make it your voter registration card as well.

That way, they can let Diebold et al know how you voted.

No thanks.
I'll carry my credit cards in my wallet.

www.digitalangel.net

My first thought upon reading this is that it's not desired for the stated reason, but instead for another. Maybe it's my paranoia, but if a person has an RFID, can't physical movement (RFID location) be tracked?

Isn't one of the fundamentals of a free society the ability to travel freely and anonymously? Do I, as a citizen, have the obligation to 'continuously report' my location and identification to authorities?

I know it would freak out the cretins, but a hand would be a much better location than the arms.

Look at http://www.shockwatch.com.au/RFID.htm. This is a device you attach to your forklifts. Each of your licensed drivers has an RFID tag in his badge. If your driver isn't licensed for that particular machine--many shops that use powered lift equipment have several kinds--the machine won't work.

Wal-Mart would put the tag in your wrist. They could also use it to clock people in and out--if you went into the breakroom you'd be clocked out, if you went past a certain point in the parking lot you'd be clocked out, when you walked into the store you'd immediately be on the clock (which means that while they were shopping for socks, they'd also be expected to help customers), and of course they could use it to track "blue clouds"--groups of Wal-Mart employees in one area. If there are six Wal-Mart employees within 10 feet of each other, they're either having an unauthorized bull session or they're packing out an aisle, and the management can decide which it is based on how pissed they are with you at the time.

or pick pockets a whole new breed of arm snatchers?

No thanks.

No negotiations with terrorists and Nazis.

I will stick with carrying my credit cards in my wallet.

:shrug:

Thanks, but no thanks. My cards are fine with me. If I want to change CC companies all I have to do is cut up the card, not go through another operation for another surgical implant.

and mailed my new card. Thank gawd. What's next?


http://bushspeaks.com/home.asp?did=17

I've got you, under my skin
I've got you, deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart
that maybe you've become a part of me
I've got you, under my skin...

nt