VeriChip RFID implant evil spreads to Glasgow
Both the The Observer and the The Telegraph report that a night club in Glasgow is following similar night clubs in Barcelona and Rotterdam by offering to implant VeriChip RFID chips under their loyal customers' skin.
This has many advantages for the bar or night club, by allowing them to extract money from customers who have decided that even credit cards are too bulky or inconvenient to carry, or who cannot even remember their own names whilst high on drugs or drink.
They are treating their loyal customers like animals such as cattle or pet cats or dogs, where identical technology is used.
The same hype tactics of promoting the VeriChips as a status symbol "allowing" a customer easier access to the "VIP" lounge/party/promoted event are evident in Glasgow as in the other European trials of the technology. Almost all of these VeriChip "trials" involve free or subsidised equipment and/or implants, and are publicity stunts aimed at supporting the share price of the chip manufacturer.
The bar/night club owner/promoter also benefits from the media hype and publicity that VericChip implants in humans always generates ("no such thing as bad publicity")
We agree with notags.co.uk in condemning the attempted introduction of VeriChips into the UK. Implanting sub-dermal tracking devices in humans is wrong, and should be illegal.
VeriChips are too electronically unsophisticated to contain any encryption technology, and they can therefore be read and abused remotely by radio, using the 125KHz ISM licence free frequency band, by malicious third parties. This is not being made clear to the "customers" in Glasgow.
Unlike a bracelet or badge with an optical barcode or even an embedded RFID chip, a VeriChip involves minor surgery to implant it, and more serious surgery to remove it.
Any British doctor who performs such unethical "unecessary surgery" or mutilation, to implant VeriChips should be struck off by the General Medical Council.
Where is the approval from the UK medical authorities permitting the use of such implants in humans ?
Comments
Zombie Wire RFID World News works toward reaching out to and educating the consumer about Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and how it infringes on the private lives of people exposed to it. Probably 90% of all consumers do not know of the RFID movement. The questions are:
1. Why are so many consumers, thus far, unaware of what is taking place with regard to the RFID movement?
2. What are RFID proponents hiding?
3. If informed of the RFID mandate, would the consumer welcome or refute its use?
These, along with any inquiries pertaining to the use of RFID, need to be scrutinized now before the movement overtakes consumer lives and stand insurmountable. GET INFORMED NOW about the RFID movement at Zombie Wire RFID World News. If you want to be a part of Zombie Wire and have something to add, please contact us, via ZombieWire.com, for more information.
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Posted by: Steven | February 10, 2005 5:37 AM
@ Darren
"RFID do NOT infringe on peoples private lives, unless that person has some relationship with the entiry collecting the RF data"
If only that were true ! Only proprietry, expensive, re-usable contactless smartcards or RFID tags, issued with a pre-shared secret or an internal list of permitted reader equipment identifiers can hope to achieve this.
Most EPCglobalinc standard "disposable" RFID chips, and the implantable VeriChip, and even the forthcoming ICAO standard Passports, do not have this,
Therefore the vast majority of RFID tags can be read by unauthorised reader equipment, belonging to organisations or snoopers where the person carrying the tags does not have any voluntary relationship with the data collectors.
A snooper does not need access to the backend commercial or government database which a particular RFID tag has is intended to work with, in order to use its mere electronic presence, i.e. its "unique" ,unecrypted id number, perhaps in conjunction with those of other RFID tags which a person is also carrying, to establish a pattern of "this tag combination / person has come within range of our reader at this time, on this date" type tracking information.
If, for example, RFID tags become common embedded in clothing, e.g. footwear, then
there is effectively no choice for most people, who will be loath to damage the goods they have bought to remove RFID tags, if they are even aware of them.
"data protection would cover all other data connected with that id and therefore prevent any unauthorised use"
In the UK at least, there is no evidence that this utopian state of affairs exists either !
Posted by: wtwu | January 16, 2006 12:34 PM
My weiner can jam almost any puny chip and get me free drinks in Barcelona. Of course, I'm blessed so you may get hosed.
Posted by: RF Tesla | April 29, 2007 5:00 PM