US group implants electronic tags in workers

[RamboLiberal]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ec414700-9bf4-11da-8baa-0000779e2340.html

An Ohio company has embedded silicon chips in two of its employees - the first known case in which US workers have been “tagged” electronically as a way of identifying them.

CityWatcher.com, a private video surveillance company, said it was testing the technology as a way of controlling access to a room where it holds security video footage for government agencies and the police.

Embedding slivers of silicon in workers is likely to add to the controversy over RFID technology, widely seen as one of the next big growth industries.

<snip>

“There are very serious privacy and civil liberty issues of having people permanently numbered,” said Liz McIntyre, who campaigns against the use of identification technology.

[niyad]

1. I wouldn't even do this to my pets.

[undergroundpanther]

3. Fuck the corporations

thier rabid secrecy, I hope that people inside leak it all,and the proper guilty heads roll,and the corruption motivating this chip planting bullshit,and the paranoia pops like a big zit and the secrets revealed.
These scumbags tell us we should accept survallence if we have nothing to hide what should we fear..well apply that to corporations and the government. Fuck them

[henslee]

17. I would. Thousands of pets a year are recovered this way.

[superconnected]

76. I did because I'd never get over it if I lost my pets.

It's just putting money on another way to get them back.

I'd barcode my kids if I had kids. I have no religious reasons to believe God will reject people because of a number - hey it's not in the bible, that's the fundy damien interpretation. And I have no problem with tagging people by number.

I don't blame you for refusing though. I used to think I'd refuse, but it was because of religious reasons.. I got lied to about the bible and then read it myself.

At this point my protest here is, no way if it's a corporation doing it to employees, yes way if it's a national thing where I'm going to get through id checks faster.

[Higans]

84. Would you do it to your child?

With all of the kid nappings???

(edited to say never mind, I read the rest of your post and answered my own question)

How about implanting a GPS tracking devise???

[crispini]

108. I'd draw the line at people.

Cats OK, kids NEVER. And not because of religious reasons. Because it's just too damn 1984 for my taste and I don't like it.

[TankLV]

103. I've always had my pets chipped.

I can understand your fears, but it is really foolish not to.

People can TALK, animals can NOT.

There's even been a few cases where a dog has been nabbed and the thief claimed it was theirs, but the chip prooved otherwise.

I could never let my dogs/kitty out without a chip.

[rsmith6621]

2. 666

Is in the House

[Higans]

96. 666 is right

www.bushisantichrist.com

[Wordie]

4. Recommended. This is truly appalling...I sincerely hope the privacy

advocacy organizations will jump on this immediately. What will this lead to? It's frightening.

[MercutioATC]

5. *Yawn*....see here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=399611&mesg_id=399631

[wtmusic]

8. Just like that wiretapping--*z-z-z*

No potential for abuse whatsoever. None. :silly:

[MercutioATC]

38. ...just like those cell phones, actually.

Many employers require their employees to carry a cell phone and they're a lot easier to track than an RFID chip.

Why aren't we irate about cell phones if we're going to complain about this?

[Solon]

42. Actually that's not it...

A cellphone, which actually is easier to track than an RFID chip, which is passive, can be dropped, and is not part of the person themselves. That would be the objection right there, this is like forcing someone to have their employee number tatooed on their arm, no different really.

[stickdog]

62. We are irate that cell phones now have GPS devices in them.

And that they almost certainly cause severe health problems in long term users.

But of course this sort of thing makes you yawn just like the fact that your Air Traffic Control facility -- the largest in the country -- was evacuated on 9/11 at an unknown time for an unknown length of time for an unknown reason.

"Don't worry, get implanted" is your motto, eh?

[Zhade]

79. Infuckingdeed.

NT!

[stickdog]

61. Exactly. What's the big deal? 1984 has already come and gone, right?

:eyes:

[MercutioATC]

78. In "1984", it wasn't voluntary. That's a BIG difference.

It's everything, in fact.

Voluntary parenthood is a great thing. Mandatory wouldn't be. As long as it's not mandatory, there's really no "1984" comparison to draw, IMO.

[stickdog]

80. Like pissing in a jar is "voluntary" for air traffic controllers?

Will you and your "independent minded" air traffic contoller buddies be lining up for your chip implants when they decide you need them?

[MercutioATC]

83. Yes, it is. It's a condition of the job.

And personally, I wouldn't have a problem with it...I forget my ID at home too much.

[stickdog]

86. Suppose the chip could kill you with a push of a button. Only to be

used if you went nuts and tried to crash some planes into each other (or questioned your employers too adamantly about the events of 9/11) or something, of course.

Would you and "free spirited" air traffic controllers still line up for that implant?

After all, Big Brother only does things like this out of love!

[MercutioATC]

87. Why create ridiculous scenarios?

Of COURSE we'd have a problem with that. I don't know many people who wouldn't. However, that's absolutely NOTHING like what's being discussed.

[stickdog]

92. Really? And you know that for sure?

Because you are an expert on what can and can't be done with a silicon chip implant or because Big Brother loves you much too much to ever harm you?

[MercutioATC]

93. No, because I don't tend to jump at shadows.

...especially shadows that aren't even there.

I have a cell phone. The government COULD use it to track and assassinate me. I'm not too concerned about it.

I work for the government. They know where I work, so they COULD kidnap and torture me for no reason. I'm not too concerned about it.

Giant, ravenous gonad-eating aliens COULD land tonight, looking for a meal. I'm not too concerned about it.

You pose a ridiculous scenario.

[stickdog]

94. Yep. Don't worry; get implanted!

Don't forget that Big Brother Loves You!

[MercutioATC]

95. If I get implanted, but wear a tinfoil hat, will you feel better?

BTW, nobody's talking about implanting ATCs, so the point is kinda moot anyway.

[stickdog]

97. That depends on what kind of implants you agree to.

[MercutioATC]

98. Nice!

At least we can keep our senses of humor.

:)

[eppur_se_muova]

106. ummm...you think they'd discuss it with anyone before doing it?

That's kind of touching, in a sweet sort of way.

I read in Science News a few years ago that scientists working on new methods of making IC's ("chips") had accidentally discovered how to modify the silicon surface with nitric acid so that an electrical signal would cause it to explode. As to what isn't public knowledge ... do you really want to trust that it's not this bad?

[MercutioATC]

110. ...and a pen can be retrofitted to fire a 22 caliber bullet...

Do you distrust everybody carrying a pen?

Somebody could substitute aspirin or vitamins with poison. Do you distrust all pills?

If you're REALLY going to go down that path, you might as well lock yourself in a safe little rubber room right now.

[eppur_se_muova]

111. Anyone who's not paranoid is not paying attention. nt

[MercutioATC]

112. I think it merits concern, but not paranoia.

The definition of paranoia:

Main Entry: para·noia
Pronunciation: "par-&-'noi-&
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek, madness, from paranous demented, from para- + nous mind
1 : a psychosis characterized by systematized delusions of persecution or grandeur usually without hallucinations
2 : a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. And how would one know exactly what was embedded?

.
.
.

Would it have an "audio" feature, where the monitor could hear all your conversations/activities??

Would it be able to inflict pain?

Silly me

This is North America -

Our governments wouldn't invade our civil liberties like that

:eyes:

[serryjw]

7. WHY would anyone subject themselves to this?

n/t

[SoCalDem]

13. Pressure put upon them..submit or look for a new job?

The bosses would not come rigth out and say itm but the implication is always there..

Conform or you might be on the list when the next round of cutnacks come out.

People have no job security these days and are totally at the mercy of bosses

[WinkyDink]

27. Why?? Because many Americans are stupid toadies, that's why.

Brown-nosers. Suck-ups. REPUBLICANS.

[serryjw]

48. SoCalDem & Winkydink

WHY does no one understand that there is more of us than THEM> If we would only stick up for each other. That is what Unions used to do, unfortunately they also don't represent the working class any more.

[WinkyDink]

53. I don't know! I'm proud to have been in the NEA! I guess too many

don't know their American history. At least when I was in h.s., we studied the Labor movement. So even Republican kids learned the truth.

[mitchtv]

56. Besides Taco Bell is open all night

and we have March Madness coming up. You want them in the street, cut off TV and pizza

[bperci108]

39. One word:

Union.

www.iww.org

[Fredda Weinberg]

16. Considering where I currently work, I would

and it would be for the public's protection. I'd rather not go into details, but an implantable RFID would be more secure than the card I carry.

I wouldn't like it, but I would accept it.

[hang a left]

19. Well well well....

What draws you out?? Tired of electronic voting conspiracies? Here to tell us how great RFID would be??

[acmejack]

22. I'm solidly with you on this.

NO way, no how period. Security be damned. It is fine for my dogs, I like to think I can find my own way home.

[Fredda Weinberg]

23. I've already got one

and if I didn't show up for work one day, the marshals would start looking for me. It's not pleasant, but it does protect the public.

As for conspiracies, I'm on the Verified Voting mail list ... when they worry, I worry. When David Dill reminds everyone that Diebold is no worse than any other DRE provider, I concur because I've done the research.

[hang a left]

25. Which is it?

You would or you already have one?

[Fredda Weinberg]

26. I carry my RFID

and don't particularly care for it, but it would be no worse under my skin than over it. The public would be safer, so I would accept it.

[WinkyDink]

28. "No worse under my skin..."??!!!

You are AGREEING to ACTUAL BODILY INVASION by CORPORATIONS??

O. M. G.

[hang a left]

29. Not her first time

excusing the unexcusable.

[Fredda Weinberg]

34. I'll help keep NYC safe

Again, I dare say I've done more to inform the public as to legitimate electoral issues than anyone posting in this thread. But I maintain my standards regardless of the political - or even personal - ramifications.

The inexcusable would be to stay silent in the face of outrageous conduct, so those who hype human error into "proof" of deliberate fraud will continue to hear my objections.

[Fredda Weinberg]

32. I don't work for a corporation

and I already accept carrying a transmitter and constant surveillance. I don't enjoy the police barricade around the pedestrian-free perimeter, but recognize the need for the facility's security.

I doubt we'd change to implantable chips, but I understand how they are more secure.

[Earth_First]

35. What exactly are you employed as/in? n/t

[Fredda Weinberg]

37. I manage a network operations center

but that's only part of my job ... unlike the other members of my team, I bring back-office skills so I also develop in-house applications. At night, I'm working on my Master's in Information Science which I expect in June.

I've consulted at or for AT&T, IBM, the Clerk of the Court for Palm Beach County and the NYS court system. Over the summer I delivered business intelligence to NYC's Department of Sanitation. I'd rather not give the name of the agency where I'm currently employed.

[Solon]

43. Why not a tatooed serial number then?

That is probably just as secure, if not more secure(the RFID chip CAN be cloned you know).

[WinkyDink]

55. So are prisons.

Or, say, Gitmo.

Gotta stay SAFE!! Code Orange!!

[Fredda Weinberg]

58. Go ahead, crack all the jokes you want ... I'll continue to

serve the public and accept the health risk my RFID poses. I'm going to die anyway and it might as well be for a good cause.

[stickdog]

63. Who cares if they are more secure? What about YOUR

fucking security? What if you knew the chip could kill you -- just for security purposes in case you went insane or something? Would you still submit to having it implanted? You know, to keep New York safe and all?

[stickdog]

60. Of the corporation, for the corporation, by the corporation ... (nt)

[clyrc]

9. Just sick!

:(

[geomon666]

10. We are becoming Nazis.

How is this any different than a serial number tattoo? I know people aren't being killed (at least not yet) but this is becoming a dystopia.

[Endangered Specie]

11. anyone who tries to force one on me

is liable to get "dick cheneyed"

[depakid]

12. Ohio........

So many downright bizarre things come out of that state, it's hard to keeo track.

[RamboLiberal]

14. Yep Ohio, Florida and Texas

Seems all the bizarre stories come out of one of those "Red" 3 states.

[warsager]

15. twilight zone...nt

[zann725]

31. Why am I also not surprised it was done in Ohio?

n/t

[sweetheart]

18. Are you willing to go all the way.

Have we made up our mind to go all the way,
and become a slave of some corporate citizen,
borg'ed in to owned flesh that cannot betray,
compelled enough to be enslaved to one of hell's denizens.
Is a whore's body pre-sold diced for display,
a fleeced citizen sheep, killed in lighting-strike life death of zen,
that our loves and illusions appear pre-betrayed,
reduced to some digits where our bodies might have been.

Inserted and collared that we are fork lifts and trollies,
ordered bout by dollies on polymers, injected with the corporate afraid-of-drugs religion,
where's NOT enought profit to sustain your job polly,
We'll turn off the tag, it'll rot safely away in your coffin.
A hundred thousand years after your death,
we'll know whether you've got smoke in your breath.

[fasttense]

20. Wow, a new tool for controlling them Wal-Mart workers. n/t

[area51]

21. chipping employees

Don't you "love" how bosses want to do shit like that to workers, yet they also want workers to be as disposable as tissues? :mad:

[sattahipdeep]

24. You say you can't reach me but you want everyone to be free.

Come down off your throne and leave your body alone.

But I'm near the end and I just ain't got the time
And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home.

Still I can't find my way home,
And I ain't done nothing wrong,
But I can't find my way home.

-Steve Winwood- Blind Faith

[moondust]

30. I'd quit.

I'd never allow this under any circumstances.

[meow2u3]

33. They'll install telescreens in every household

Just as in "1984."

[hunter]

36. The internet is pretty much that...

They know who I am and that I hate Big Brother.

[ihaveaquestion]

40. 10 to 1 the military is one of the first BIG adopters of this.

Imagine the benefits of replacing dog tags with a chip embedded in the shoulder? It's a captive audience, too. Soldiers would have a hard time saying no to it - even if given the option of having dog tags or chips. There'd be peer-pressure and maybe even a stigma attached to those too wimpy to be chipped.

The next bunch of folks will probably be the religious nuts and other yahoos wanting to "keep their kids safe" by chipping them.

<paranoia> Give it 20 years and it'll be a requirement for citizenship! </paranoia>

:scared: :scared: :scared:

[AnneD]

45. I don't know....

it has the distinct feel of the 'mark of the beast'. But then again, I am surprised that religious conservetives have not spoken up about a lot of the things going on (too much gov control, wiretapping,etc). Well, they did say the antichrist would fool a lot of people, I just didn't think it would be so many Christians:sarcasm:

[CatholicEdHead]

54. Yes it does

All the Fundies would take the "666" route on this and interpert it as a "sign of the antichrist".

Then secrectly they would cheer the Rapture getting closer.

[ronnie624]

59. I see no paranoia.

Can there be any doubt about to where this leads?

[Megahurtz]

41. Sickening!

Fuck that shit!:argh:

[Lance_Boyle]

44. RFID chip is *optional* at this point

This company has decided that persons requiring physical access to the datacenter have an RFID tag inserted in the bicep. Nobody is being FORCED to have the chip inserted. But if your job requires physical access to the datacenter, then the policy is coercive, to say the least. And pretty well stupid, too... there is no additional security to the subdermal RFID tagging that could not be accomplished by, say, retina scanning. My guess is that it's a headline-grabber by the company in question... "look at how serious we are about data security! We chip our employees!" It's a gimmick. But it *DID* get them the desired headlines...

[Clovis Sangrail]

47. sure there is

While there is no addtional security added to point of entry, if they wanted to the RFID tag would allow them to track where in the datacenter the person went. (and possibly trigger an alarm or lockout if they went to the wrong place)

RFID scanners are cheap. ( < $30 )
They could be put next to the telco racks, next to "Highly flammable" area, outside the "we store the really important stuff here" area, etc. etc.
(also outside the lunchroom, the bathroom... you get the idea)
Now you don't just know who entered, but also where they went.

Not that I agree with implanting RFID tags, but there is a significant boost to possible security.

[ChaoticSilly]

113. Actually these things are LESS secure

All it takes is a directional antenna recording the entry point's broadcast (no need to wait until someone goes in - they broadcast continually). Then just follow a chipped employee to the grocery store or to a restaurant or to the movies, play back the recorded broadcast and record the chip's response. No physical contact is needed and the chipped employee is completely unaware that his security access has just been compromised.

As for tracking where the employee goes inside the datacenter, cameras can do that much less invasively.

My question is what happens when employees quit or get fired? Also, will the execs get this chip or is it only for the "peons"?

[Xenotime]

46. This is what right-wing big business does to it's workers...

they tag them like they are some sort of animal.

[VegasWolf]

49. Very X-Files indeed!!! nt

[Blue_Tires]

50. and so it starts....

[eppur_se_muova]

51. The Doctor is in ... Doctor Strangelove. nt

[HuffleClaw]

52. a creeping horror

i can't see it passing a court challenge though, as its far too invasive.

[Clara T]

57. You Are Seriously Asleep at the Wheel America- Suave Technocratic Fascism

[OKNancy]

64. kick

[UpInArms]

65. Firm implants ID chips (in employees)

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060214/BIZ02/602140331/1076

A small Walnut Hills operator of security cameras has re-ignited the international debate over microchips and privacy by implanting the chips into at least two employees.

Chief executive officer Sean Darks of CityWatcher.com said a doctor implanted the chips - about the size of a grain of rice - in his forearm several months ago and in the arm of another employee. He would not identify the other employee.

Darks said the implantation was voluntary and allows the employee to pass through security readers at the company's data center without holding up a key chain or ID card.

<snip>

"There's a few uses for them, but none of them are 'Big Brother,' " Darks said Monday. "It's just an added level of security."

<snip>

"This is the first time an employer has actually linked taking a VeriChip with a paycheck," said Katherine Albrecht, a privacy advocate who founded a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.

...more...

[Coventina]

66. Okay, um, the guy's name is "Darks". And he's trying to say he's not

"Big Brother"?

Yeah, I believe & trust him!

:eyes:

on edit: typo

on further edit: And of course, this is how they will try to convince us it is "okay"....by telling us that it is making us more safe.

:puke:

[stop the bleeding]

67. LOL

:rofl:

[Lerkfish]

68. another tinfoil hat conspiracy is proven correct.

I brought this up on another forum 3 yrs ago and was called a conspiracy theorist. This is GONNA happen, folks.

"666" mean anything to anyone?

keep in mind, once this becomes part of you, culling the herd of undesirable dissenters becomes a piece of cake. Fascism on steroids. DO NOT ever let them implant these in you!

[CrazyOrangeCat]

69. How stupid/scared would one have to be . . .

. . . to allow such insanity?

[ret5hd]

71. there was a thread here yesterday on this very company...

and believe it or not, there are people here on this board that a very much in favor of it.

[Warpy]

72. It relieved him of the terrible burden of holding up his security

card/punching a keypad/waiting to be buzzed in.

That's a big deal to a CEO whose time is money.

These chips have to be voluntary, by the way. Anybody who doesn't volunteer can defeat them with a bit of tinfoil secured by a bandaid over the site.

[WinkyDink]

77. "voluntary"?? As in, "If you want to work for us, ...."

Just like I can't get a credit card without telling my S.S. #, EVEN THOUGH the S.S. Administration says NOT to tell!

Corporations RULE, Baby!

[JitterbugPerfume]

70. are we scared

yet?

[Ouabache]

73. We need one implanted in CHENEY so that everytime

his fat ugly dumb ass gets near a gun rack, an alarm goes off.
So the area can be properly cleared of course.

[rodeodance]

74. and sci-fi becomes reality.

[eppur_se_muova]

99. "...without holding up a key chain or ID card." Oh, wow!

That is SUCH an inconvenience, to have to hold up a key or card! It is obviously SO worth it to have SURGERY to plant a FOREIGN OBJECT in your body and risk INFECTION and ALLEGIC REACTION. That's just SO much better than having to use a key or card, and it OBVIOUSLY justifies having this done to EVERYONE. Let's vote a resolution to fund the effort right away!

[flamingpie2500]

75. So how much is a grain rice worth? Anyone with that implan can access

property? No questions asked? If you have the implant you have total access? How INSANE!!! Movie scenario--give us the implant or give us your arm.

[Uncle Joe]

81. The slippery slope,

it begins with high security jobs, and in ten years if you are flipping burgers, they will require it.

[Zodiak]

88. Yup...it's the piss test all over again

Everyone remembers when piss tests were implemented in a few cases because those jobs were soooo important. Now everyone who wears a blue collar has to submit to one. Oddly, very few who wear the white collar take a piss test....a total double-standard.

And it will serve as the precedent for this implementation, trust me.

Do NOT submit to this!! And yes, it is coming....despite the "ho hums" from those that trust too much for their own (and our) good.

[mitchum]

82. I don't even like to read science fiction, and I sure as hell don't ...

want to live in it.
When will people say...ENOUGH?!

[Redstone]

85. I'm REAL big on privacy, but this is sensationalist bullshit.

I'm sure those two people weren't FORCED to take the implants.

Once a company says "all employees MUST have these," THEN we have a problem.

Redstone

[Zodiak]

89. These things move slow

Until everyone accepts them as part of normal life....then they move fast to make sure everyone has to take part in it. If you wait until everyone has to get one to speak up, then you will be seen as a crazy conspiracy theorist becuase everyone else wil be conditioned.

Check the precedents.

[Clara T]

91. Are You Sure? Let's Take a Tour, Past and Present

US group implants electronic tags in workers
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: February 12 2006 22:02 | Last updated: February 12 2006 22:02

An Ohio company has embedded silicon chips in two of its employees - the first known case in which US workers have been “tagged” electronically as a way of identifying them.

CityWatcher.com, a private video surveillance company, said it was testing the technology as a way of controlling access to a room where it holds security video footage for government agencies and the police.
Embedding slivers of silicon in workers is likely to add to the controversy over RFID technology, widely seen as one of the next big growth industries.

RFID chips – inexpensive radio transmitters that give off a unique identifying signal – have been implanted in pets or attached to goods so they can be tracked in transit.
“There are very serious privacy and civil liberty issues of having people permanently numbered,” said Liz McIntyre, who campaigns against the use of identification technology.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ec414700-9bf4-11da-8baa-0000779e2340.html



High Tech, Under the Skin

ANNA BAHNEY / NY Times | Feb 2 2006

WILLIAM DONELSON'S left hand gripped the paper-covered arm of an antique barber chair at a tattoo and piercing shop in Cambridge, Ontario. His feet bounced gently on the chrome footrest as he waited for his implant.

The piercer — whose day is usually spent inserting rings into the eyebrows and navels of teenage girls — snapped on purple latex gloves and lifted a four-millimeter-wide sterilized needle to Mr. Donelson's hand.

"I'm set," Mr. Donelson said with a deep breath. He watched as the needle pierced the fleshy webbing between his thumb and forefinger and a microchip was slid under his skin. At last he would be able to do what he had long imagined: enhance his body's powers through technology.

By inserting the chip, a radio frequency identification device, Mr. Donelson would literally have at his fingertips the same magic that makes security gates swing open with a swipe of a card, and bridge and tunnel traffic flow smoothly with an E-ZPass. With a wave of his hand he planned to log on to his computer, open doors and unlock his car.

Implanting the chip was a relatively simple procedure but highly symbolic to Mr. Donelson, a 21-year-old computer networking student so enthralled with the link between technology and the body that he has tattoos of data-input jacks running down his spine. They are an allusion to an imagined future when people might be plugged directly into computers. His new chip, complete with a miniature antenna and enclosed in a glass ampoule no bigger than a piece of long-grain rice, has a small memory where he has stored the words "Embrace Technology."

"People are already using their cellphones as an extension of their communication ability," Mr. Donelson said, indicating the wireless cellphone earpiece affixed to his ear. "It is pretty much a part of you anyway."

The difference between a device resting in one's ear and inside the body is "a pretty small step," he said.

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/020206chipped.htm

Compulsory ID cards for UK citizens within five years
Critics warn UK is "sleepwalking towards a surveillance state"
   

By Andy McCue

Published: Tuesday 14 February 2006
UK citizens will be forced to register for biometric ID cards when applying for a new passport within two years after MPs voted on Monday night to make the controversial scheme compulsory and to not put the costs under independent scrutiny.
In the end Prime Minister Tony Blair's enforced absence from the ID cards vote due to a faulty plane in South Africa didn't matter as the government comfortably defeated a threatened backbench Labour rebellion, albeit with a reduced majority.
A late round of lobbying by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in Blair's absence ensured the government won the crucial votes in the House of Commons and overturned amendments made to the ID cards bill last month by peers in the House of Lords.
A halved majority of 31 saw MPs narrowly vote to reject a wrecking amendment that would have made it completely voluntary for citizens to register for an ID card when applying for a passport.
MPs also voted, by a majority of 51, in favour of making it compulsory for citizens to register their personal and biometric details on the National Identity Register when applying for or renewing "designated" documents such as a passport despite warnings from Conservative shadow home secretary David Davies that the UK is "sleepwalking towards a surveillance state".
MPs accepted without a vote a government amendment that requires a separate Act of Parliament to make ID cards officially compulsory. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has indicated the government would move to do this by 2011.
A rebellion over an amendment that would have forced the government to make the full cost calculations of the ID card scheme public before awarding any contracts to IT suppliers was also staved off after Clarke agreed to report to parliament every six months on the costs. That was carried by a majority of 53 votes.

http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39156423,00.htm

Germany In 1933: The Easy Slide Into Fascism

"... It may seem a paradox, but it is nonetheless the simple truth, to say that on the contrary, the decisive historical events take place among us, the anonymous masses. The most powerful dictators, ministers, and generals are powerless against the simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large... Decisions that influence the course of history arise out of the individual experiences of thousands or millions of individuals."

http://www.crisispapers.org/Editorials/germany-1933.htm



"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop.  Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures" that no "patriotic German" could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing.  One day it is over his head.
http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free.html

[kineneb]

100. I agree, Clara T

With RFID, one becomes a mere cog in the machine, no more important than a product or pallet of boxes. What is the difference between a number tatooed on one's arm or a chip which has been implanted? Not much. No thanks. Besides, the hackers can always figure out how to reprogram something like that, which opens up yet another underground business: RFID rewriting. Where ever there is hardware or software, it can be altered.

[Clara T]

101. It's more harrowing than that with the next generation RFID's

Consider this with mobile cell phones. At present your mobil phone can be switched on once those targeting you have traced the frequency etc of your signal. Through this way you can be located and if you are a "bad guy" in Bushspeak you can be toasted-In Pentagonspeak. This is not theory or in the future, it is being used at the moment. It is how several assasinations have taken place in the War on Terra over in Mesopotamia.

Now if you are RFIDed you will be traceable everywhere you go as is the case with most new autos nowadays utilizing computer chips.

Always packaged for our "convenience" or "safety".

Look what is happening in UK. EVERYONE is going to be REQUIRED to have a Biometric ID in five years. Possibly the public will revolt. It is heading for technocratic fascism. Knowledge of your every move if so desired.

[kineneb]

102. I am sure someone will develop a "cure"

"Oh, gee, I'm sorry, I must have got too close to a large magnet." Or something to that effect.

Once again, the "honest" citizen will be tracable, and the criminals/anarchists will find a way to circumvent the system. Think doppelgangers, etc. The mind boggles at the new versions of identity theft that will come with RFID.

The only place I can see a use for RFID in humans is in Altzhiemers' patients, so they can be traced if they wander off from a care facility. Otherwise, no way.

[eppur_se_muova]

105. Tesla coil. Look it up.

:evilgrin:

[eppur_se_muova]

104. Wow! Nice work, Clara T!

I used to think this was being paranoid, now it seems only logical. The technological facts haven't changed, only the social/political environment. One needs to adopt the attitude of a Cardinal Richelieu: The intentions of those in authority don't matter, because they can be replaced tomorrow. We should consider what they are *capable* of doing, because their successors will be capable of the same -- and their successors may have very different intentions.

(PS: I had to type your name to 'get it'.)

[crispini]

109. Drip drip drip drip drip.

This is the beginning of the problem right here.

[trixie]

90. Is Ohio the new Florida?

:shrug:

[eppur_se_muova]

107. No, it's way ahead of FL.

I saw my first anti-abortion protest in OH.

I saw my first rabid right-wing editorial in a college newspaper in OH.

I've seen more explicitly white-supremacist graffiti in a few months in OH than in all my previous years combined.

I was lucky to miss out on a neo-Nazi parade and the riot that followed in OH.

Ohio is Texas without the heat.

[frankly_fedup2]

114. Not in this lifetime or the next. No company or anything is going

to put anything in my body. They can fire my husband and we will live on the streets before that happens.

Sounds like the government wants to be able to keep up with us even when we go to the bathroom.

[AnneD]

115. I am so surprised...

this story has been on our morning news for 2 days in a row and on our evening news (CBS afilliated). The morning folks were pretty open about not liking the idea. They company was talking it up in the video but today they brought up the fact that the data was not encrypted and that identity theft would be extremely easy.

[Clara T]

116. Pay Attention Folks

The espionage law (18 U.S.C. Sec. 793) applies to anyone who, "for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation, goes upon, enters, flies over, or otherwise obtains information concerning any vessel, aircraft, work of defense, navy yard, naval station, submarine base, fueling station, fort, battery, torpedo station, dockyard, canal, railroad, arsenal, camp, factory, mine, telegraph, telephone, wireless, or signal station, building, office, research laboratory or station or other place connected with the national defense … "

It also applies to anyone (again, with "intent or reason to believe that the information will be used to hurt the U.S. or help a foreign nation") "copies, takes, makes, or obtains, or attempts to copy, take, make, or obtain, any sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, document, writing, or note of anything connected with the national defense;"

Or anyone  who "receives or obtains or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain from any person, or from any source whatever, any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note, of anything connected with the national defense, knowing or having reason to believe, at the time he receives or obtains, or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain it, that it has been or will be obtained, taken, made, or disposed of by any person contrary to the provisions of this chapter."

This applies to just about everyone who publishes a newspaper or who has ever posted commercial satellite photos on a Web site. The last passage further applies to just about anyone who's ever downloaded from such a site.

http://www.slate.com/id/2136324/sidebar/2136386/