Thread: Bill targets tracking chips

Bill targets tracking chips
Forced-implant ban awaits Blunt action.

Published Friday, May 30, 2008

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Your bosses can still make you work weekends and give you projects you loathe. But Missouri lawmakers this year voted to make it a crime if they order a microchip to be implanted in your arm.

Forcing someone to get a microchip implant already is barred in California, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Legislation awaiting Gov. Matt Blunt’s signature would make it a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $1,000 for demanding that an employee get an implant.

Katherine Albrecht, an expert in consumer privacy and radio frequency identification, or RFID, acknowledges that microchip implants might sound like "black helicopters and tinfoil hats."

But the founder of AntiChips.com and other critics argue there are tangible medical, privacy and religious worries driving attempts to pass laws banning forced implants.

"The people who oppose it don’t understand how real the threat is, and the people who are gung-ho don’t understand its power," Albrecht said.

Albrecht has been trying to persuade state lawmakers across the country to pass legislation regulating technology that allows for "tagged" items to be tracked when microchips send off a radio signal to special readers. The information can then be linked to a database.

This year at least 17 states have considered bills regulating or restricting radio frequency identification, according the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last year, there were 13.

Radio tracking has been used for tracing stores’ inventories, in toll booth quick passes, linking unconscious patients to important medical information and even for uniting missing pets with their owners. But critics say the benefits pale in comparison to risks of cancer and identity theft by secretly lifting information off someone’s microchip.

The nation’s only federally approved maker of human microchip implants has denied claims that its product can cause cancer. A spokesman for Florida-based VeriChip Corp. did not return a call seeking comment.

According to VeriChip’s Web site, the microchip is about the size of a grain of rice and enclosed in medical-grade glass. It is injected into the arm and activated when it passes near a specially designed reader.

Last fall, The Associated Press identified a series of decade-old veterinary and toxicology studies that linked chip implants to tumors in some lab mice and rats.

"I really believe that anyone at this point is going to have a huge hurdle to overcome with the absolute clear-cut link to cancer," Albrecht said. "And were it not for that, I would be extremely afraid right now."

The push for a Missouri ban on forced implants started with Rep. Jim Guest, who has developed a reputation for focusing on libertarian issues such as opting out of the federal Real ID program. Guest initially wanted a broad prohibition on microchip implantation, but after that bill stalled, he inserted into a bill dealing with injured workers a narrower ban on forcing implants as a condition for employment.

Guest, R-King City, admits he doesn’t know of any Missouri employers who are doing that.

An Ohio video surveillance company had employees get a chip implant for access to a secure records room. Two European nightclubs also used the microchips to link patrons to prepaid accounts.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/May ... ews012.asp

Missouri law would fine employers for requiring microchip implants

By CHRIS BLANK/The Associated Press

May 29, 2008 | 10:47 p.m. CST

JEFFERSON CITY — Your bosses can still make you work weekends and give you projects you loathe. But Missouri lawmakers have voted to make it a crime if they order that a microchip be implanted in your arm.

Forcing someone to get a microchip implantis already barred in California, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Legislation awaiting Gov. Matt Blunt’s signature would make it a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $1,000 for a boss who demands that a worker get an implant.

Katherine Albrecht, an expert in consumer privacy and radio frequency identification, acknowledges that microchip implants might sound like “black helicopters and tin foil hats.â€