Human-implanted Chips Essay -- Technology Electronics Essays

Human-implanted Chips While the idea of human tracking has its share of benefits, there certainly are numerous pitfalls that also exist. While the ability to identify someone with an ID tag may have practical uses, the security and privacy issues could seem potentially alarming to some. Not only that, a closer look may show that the technology doesn’t necessarily offer very many advantages when considering the costs of nation-wide adoption of the technology. This paper will try to investigate into these issues, whilst attempt to come up with some solutions. Ethical Issues One of the first problems with Digital Angel and the Verichip is the sparseness of information relating to the technology. A quick tour of the Applied Digital Solutions’ Verichip website will give you a quick synopsis of what RFIDs are, and then list a few possible uses of the technology. The Frequently Asked Questions page on the website is equally shortchanged on information, with just a short tidbit on how the chips are installed, among other information. With a device that people will be living with for the rest of their lives (should they choose to bestow it upon them), I feel that many would rather have available detailed information on the technology. This is even more applicable when you consider the hostility that many people breed to technology that could lead to their mass surveillance (i.e. fear of conspiracy); many of these people’s concerns will likely be alleviated just by releasing more detailed info out on the web for the public to see. The real problem will come when these chips are mainly used for tracking purposes. Though security cameras and the like already exist everywhere to monitor specific locations, they cannot put t... ...initely at risk if anything more than the barest of features are implemented with the technology. It’s evident that the technology is not a necessity today, and that widespread usage may be something that’s quite a bit ahead in the future, if at all. Unfortunately, this is one technology that may initially find a better home in countries seeking to better track their citizens. Bibliography â€Å"Chip Implants Already Here.† GreaterThings.com. Digital Angel. Nov 08, 2003. Applied Digital Solutions. Nov 08, 2003. â€Å"Digital Angel: Mark of the Beast.† Nov 29, 2003.< http://www.web-ministry.com/revelation/digital_angel/> â€Å"Mark of the Beast?† World Net Daily. Nov 29, 2003.< http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26217>