California Senate Blocks Mandatory ID Implants in Employees
September 4th, 2007Oh, thank you, Master.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
Tackling a dilemma right out of a science fiction novel, the state Senate passed legislation Thursday that would bar employers from requiring workers to have identification devices implanted under their skin.
State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) proposed the measure after at least one company began marketing radio frequency identification devices for use in humans.
The devices, as small as a grain of rice, can be used by employers to identify workers. A scanner passing over a body part implanted with one can instantly identify the person.
“RFID is a minor miracle, with all sorts of good uses,” Simitian said. “But we shouldn’t condone forced ‘tagging’ of humans. It’s the ultimate invasion of privacy.”
Simitian said he fears that the devices could be compromised by persons with unauthorized scanners, facilitating identity theft and improper tracking and surveillance.
The bill has been approved by the state Assembly and now goes to the governor.
Nine senators opposed the measure, including Bob Margett (R-Arcadia), who said it is premature to legislate technology that has not yet proved to be a problem. “It sounded like it was a solution looking for a problem,” Margett said. “It didn’t seem like it was necessary.”
One company, VeriChip, has been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration to sell implanted identification devices, and about 2,000 people have had them implanted, Simitian said. A representative of the firm did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.
CityWatcher.com, a Cincinnati video surveillance company, has required employees who work in its secure data center to have a microchip implanted in an arm.
Similar technology has been used for years to help identify lost pets.
This probably would have gone through were it not for the fact that religious concerns make the ordinary, not-very-bright people who usually support repressive police-state measures skittish about this particular technology. Many Christians have speculated that implanted computer-chips could very well be the “Mark of the Beast” of which The Book of Revelation in The Bible speaks.
RFID has many uses. Maybe UPS/Fedex can keep track of my packages using RFID. Technology can benefit mankind or it can enslave us. I am wholeheartedly opposed to RFID implants. I don’t have any comments on ‘the mark of the beast’ but I don’t want to live in a world where I have to swipe my hand to by food. I’ll leave A Scanner Darkly on my bookshelf.
Clever tyrants are never punished. –Voltaire
I should note that some religious, ordinary, “not-very-bright” people who see not so much the Mark of the Beast but the psychological gateway to it in the Verichip (after all, if people are used to it in microcosms, it will be very easy to do on a grand scale) have been consistently against these repressive police-state measures.
We will not have a mark of the beast without a world that will worship the Antichrist as God, and we will not have a mark of the beast without one-world government.