US group implants electronic tags in workers

[The Straight Story]

US group implants electronic tags in workers

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

[FormerRepublican]

1. So much for the Constitution. The police will be doing this next.

[Deja Q]

2. Ohio, eh?

Was Drew Carey fitted with one of these?

Also, where are these chips shoved up implanted anyway?

[MercutioATC]

3. "permanent"???

I don't see anything about the tagging being permanent. If it's not used to track people, it's just a security device (that can be removed any time the subject wishes).

Am I missing something?

[laheina]

4. How would a person know that they weren't be tracked? nt

[MercutioATC]

6. Then we should be bitching about cell phones.

Hell, they're easier to track than RFID chips...

[laheina]

7. Excellent point.nt

[WinkyDink]

10. Yes, you are!

You're missing the "camel's nose under the tent", get the public used to it, point.

[klook]

11. And just how does the subject remove this device

that's inserted beneath their skin? This thing is not an ID card hanging from your belt. It's a subcutaneous sliver of silicon!

You consider this yawn-worthy? I sure as hell don't.

[MercutioATC]

16. We voluntarily carry cell phones every day...

RFID chips are harder to track (they're passive, not active). Why are they a more serious invasion than cell phones?

I'm not familiar with the exact implantation process that's being used, so I don't know the removal process. It wouldn't be a difficult thing, though.

[klook]

22. So since my cell phone (which I can turn off) can track my location

I shouldn't worry about a subcutaneous chip that can identify me? I'm not following this argument.... :smoke:

[MercutioATC]

28. No, I just find it odd that people are upset that some employees

VOLUNTARILY get tagged for security purposes when they already walk around every day carrying a tracking device (cell phone).

[400Years]

13. are you missing something? yes, a few brain cells.

wake up.

[MercutioATC]

17. It's all hype.

Again, cell phones are MORE invasive and nobody says a word about them. If somebody's going to get worked up about RFID chips, they should be even MORE upset about cell phones.

...unless they're missing a few brain cells, that is...

[LibertyorDeath]

19. Well for starters you can give your cell to anyone

Turn it on & tape it to a stray dogs ass.

So how is that more invasive than a internal
electronic tag

[MercutioATC]

27. Because cell phones are active transmitters.

They can be tracked from anywhere.

RFID chips are passive. You'd have to walk by a receiver set to read that tag's ID at close range to be "tracked".

[stickdog]

31. I love this type of reasoning. "Cell phones invade our privacy

horribly, so let's all get implanted with silicon chips!"

[MercutioATC]

33. No, I just think it's illogical to be upset about one and not the other.

Personally, neither bothers me much.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. Big Brother has arrived...

Please check your civil liberties at the door.

That is all. Thank you for playing.

[upi402]

8. 1984, MALLOY is reading it on air

history
Like when Pacifica (?) read War and Peace live on air, with celebrity readers.

[Erika]

9. A new tool for worker productivity

Make sure those workers aren't in the bathroom or breakroom.

New tool will save millions for corporations as workers realize they will be held accountable. Bush gives huge tax breaks (again) to corporations for helping make America more profitable.

CEO's exempted, of course.

[WinkyDink]

12. Of course! Otherwise, we'd find out their mistresses' addresses!

Not to mention when they meet with their suppliers.
Dope, graft, bribe, you name it.

[chat_noir]

14. remember the mall scene in "Minority Report" ?

In a future world laced with RFID spychips, cards in your wallet could "squeal" on you as you enter malls, retail outlets, and grocery stores, announcing your presence and value to businesses. Reader devices hidden in the doors, walls, displays, and floors could frisk the RFID chips in your clothes and other items on your person to determine your age, sex, and preferences. Since spychip information travels through clothing, they could even get a peek at the color and size of your underwear.

We're not joking. A major worldwide clothing manufacturer named Benetton has already tried to embed RFID chips into women's undergarments. And they would have gotten away with it, too, had it not been for an international outcry when we exposed their plan. Details of the "I'd Rather Go Naked" campaign come later in the book.


SpyChips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID

http://www.strike-the-root.com/52/lfb/lfb1.html

more...

While consumers might be able to avoid spychipped clothing brands for now, they could be forced to wear RFID-enabled work clothes to earn a living. Already uniform companies like AmeriPride and Cintas are embedding RFID tracking tags into their clothes that can withstand high temperature commercial washings.

Don't have to wear a chipped uniform to work? Your RFID-enabled employee badge could do the spying instead. One day, these devices could tell management who you're chatting with at the water cooler and how long you've spent in the restroom—even whether or not you've washed your hands. There's already a product called iHygiene that can monitor the handwashing habits of RFID-tagged employees during bathroom visits.

[Coexist]

15. kick

[jmowreader]

18. I can think of ONE good use for this

And that's controlling access to dangerous machinery.

Yesterday I went outside to look at something under the front loading dock...and there was a customer driving one of our forklifts, just loading pallets of concrete into his truck like there was no tomorrow. No Home Depot lift truck license. (Lift truck licenses are only valid at the company that issues them because you have to prove you can safely operate in that workplace--they're not like driver's licenses, where if you have one you can drive anywhere. If you have two jobs where you drive forklifts, you need two separate licenses.) No seatbelt, either. No spotter. Oh, the OSHA violations are just piling up here, man.

I asked the guy if I could help him. "No. Fuck off."

I told the guy customers weren't allowed to drive the store's forklifts. "I'm driving it. What are you gonna do about it?"

I closed the valve on the propane tank, which makes the machine die, and made an emergency call to the manager, who brought the loss prevention people with him. Yup, you guessed it: shoplifter, or someone who was trying to be one.

There is an RFID system you can get for your lift equipment, and it's pretty slick: every driver wears a badge, and if your badge isn't registered for that machine, the system disables the hydraulics--this keeps a guy who has an orderpicker license but no slipsheet machine license from driving the slipsheet machine but allows him to drive the orderpicker. Turning off the hydraulics (which control the mast on all machines and the steering on a forklift) is better than turning off the starter--once the machine's running, anyone can drive it.

The only problem with that system is that I know that if my store had RFID readers on the lift equipment, next thing you know there'd be RFID readers on the restrooms, the breakroom, receiving, all the doors, the phone center...I want to use the best technology to keep people safe, but I don't want that same technology getting people fired because they took three bathroom breaks instead of the authorized two or because they went into the breakroom to find someone five times in a shift. It is a dilemma, isn't it?

[mongo]

21. Wow.

Every time I read one of your customer service nightmares I think of how lucky I am.

You'ld think running an adult store, I'd get all sorts of weirdos in here, but really it's just an ocassional drunk, shoplifter or socially inept person I have to deal with.

As far as the forklifts go, perhaps some sort of fingerprint reader could be used.

[bperci108]

23. Not to sound like an ass, but...

"And that's controlling access to dangerous machinery."


There's already a solution to this problem, included on every lift-truck right from the factory:

It's called an "ignition key switch".

Unless said shoplifter/"helpful" person/dumbass is prepared to hotwire the Hyster, your problem is solved without hi-tech "solutions" that are more harmful than the problems they purport to fix. ;)

[jmowreader]

26. You mean "remove the key from the machine when not in use"?

That's not a feasible solution for several reasons.

First are the number of people licensed to drive--about 130. Would we give everyone their own key (and hope someone didn't lose it), or have one key per machine and keep it in a keybox (hoping that someone didn't set it down on top of a display or something)? I've seen the kind of access you refer to used, but it's in places where one person drives a particular machine all shift. There it works. In my store it wouldn't.

Also, consider: Toyota offers their machines with your choice of removable or nonremovable keys. We have nonremovable keys. Most places that don't have dedicated drivers either have nonremovable keys, or they don't remove the removable keys. Our Raymond machines have removable keys, but all Raymond trucks use the same key pattern--the key out of my crab-steer reach has been used to make new keys for half the Raymond trucks in town.

[bperci108]

30. Well....

I guess there's always The Club.


:eyes:

[stickdog]

32. Great. Implant everyone with silicon chips because you don't

feel like controlling access to the ignition switch!

[Robb]

24. Huge brass ones on that shoplifter

Good story, too. :thumbsup:

[earth mom]

20. Be afraid, be very afraid! Then get angry 'cause this is wrong!

:scared:

:grr:

[Dr. Jones]

25. eeks!

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.

For those of you who are interested in the paranormal realm, I did some research for you. In the Bible, in Revelation 13:16-18 it says this:

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

Could the Bible have predicted a new economic system whereby everybody is forced to get such a chip implant in order to make purchases and sell stuff? I don't know, but it is very intriguing that in this article they're talking about a system whereby people are "permanently numbered." I suppose if the world economy crashes and people are forced to get this chip implant it would make sense. But these Bible verses do clearly warn people not to accept this thing...hmph.

I don't know...but this is all pretty damn eerie to me, particularly from a civil libertarian point of view. I certainly would not want to be tracked all the time and have the big companies see what I'm purchasing, etc.

[pitohui]

29. if you have a credit card

they already know what you're purchasing