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Microchips Being Implanted Into Humans; Concerns About Privacy and Civil Liberty

By Terry Vanderheyden

CINCINATTI, February 16, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The head of an American security company has had himself and two employees injected with computer microchips for more secure access to confidential surveillance information.

CityWatcher.com CEO Sean Darks told the Globe and Mail, “It works great. I just walk to the door in front of the reader, it beeps and the door opens up.” His company contracts its services to police and government organizations. “We’ll continue using this technology,” he added. “We need to make sure we have every security measure available in place to protect our clients’ interests.”

The Radio Frequency Identification Device, which is slightly larger than a grain of rice, was injected into the trio’s triceps muscle. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the device, manufactured by VeriChip, for human use in 2004. VeriChip’s main application for the device is for implantation into patients to quickly identify them and gain access to their medical charts.

Meanwhile a man and woman declared their love for each other on Valentine’s Day this year by having matching chips implanted. Jennifer Tomblin and Amal Graafstra said the purpose of the chips will be so the pair can have keyless access to each other’s vehicles, apartments, and home computers.

“I got interested in RFID, essentially, as a way to replace my keys,” Graafstra said, as reported by CTV News. He has written software to accompany the electronic devices that are available on line for a few dollars. Graafstra has written a book that also details a self-implantation method. He is the first to implant the chip into the hand.

Liz McIntyre, co-author of Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID, contacted CityWatcher.com after it announced it had integrated the VeriChip VeriGuard product into its access control system.

“It worries us that a government contractor that specializes in surveillance projects would be the first to publicly incorporate this technology in the workplace,” said McIntyre.

“Ironically, implantable tags may not provide CityWatcher with that additional safety, after all,” McIntyre added. “Last month security researcher Jonathan Westhues demonstrated how the VeriChip can be skimmed and cloned by a hacker, who could theoretically duplicate an individual’s VeriChip implant to access a secure area. Westhues claims the VeriChip “is not good for anything” and has absolutely no security.

“No one I spoke with at . . . CityWatcher knew that the VeriChip had been hacked,” McIntyre observed. “They were also surprised to hear of VeriChip’s downsides as a medical device. It was clear they weren’t aware of some of the controversy surrounding the implant.”

Katherine Albrecht, Spychips co-author and outspoken critic of the VeriChip, says the chipping sets an unsettling precedent. “It’s wrong to link a person’s paycheck with getting an implant,” she said. “Once people begin ‘voluntarily’ getting chipped to perform their job duties, it won’t be long before pressure gets applied to those who refuse.”

Albrecht and McIntyre, who are Christians, also have religious concerns about RFID chip implants. In their latest book, The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance, the pair explain how plans by global corporations and government entities to broadly deploy RFID could usher in a world that bears a striking resemblance to the one predicted in Revelation, the last book of the Bible.

“While Christians have theological reasons to reject being uniquely numbered, this is an issue that should concern anyone who values privacy and civil liberties,” said Albrecht. “The VeriChip is Big Brother technology being unscrupulously marketed by a company that would like to put a chip in every one of us. It has no place on free American soil.”

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Human Implantable Verichip Being Promoted At Discount Price
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/oct/02102807.html

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