-Caveat Lector-

1 in 4 persons surveyed at the cnn site are ready to be implanted with
this...

Dave Hartley
http://www.Asheville-Computer.com/dave


http://www.cnn.com/1999/TECH/ptech/12/20/implant.device/index.html

              Tiny human-borne monitoring device sparks privacy fears


December 20, 1999
Web posted at: 4:48 p.m. EST (2148 GMT)


By Richard Stenger
CNN Interactive Writer

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A Palm Beach, Florida-based telecommunications company
has developed a miniature digital monitoring device that can be implanted in
people, intended to assist in locating missing children or for monitoring
the heart rate of at-risk patients.

But electronic freedom activists are concerned about exploitation of the
technology, which would use global positioning system (GPS) technology to
track implantees.

"It sounds dreadful. That's about as bad as it gets," Marc Rotenberg,
director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, said
Monday.

   QUICKVOTE
   Would you have an implant device put in yourself or your children?
Yes    24%
No    76%
View Results


Applied Digital Solutions announced last week it had acquired patent rights
to develop the unique transceiver, which would be powered by muscle
movements of implantees. The company plans to complete a working prototype
by the end of 2000.

Planted inconspicuously just under the skin, the implantable transceiver
sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by GPS technology.
The company expects applications in the fields of law enforcement, security
and medicine.

According to ADS, a company with an Internet and e-commerce focus, the
devise could track lost hikers, abducted children and "military, diplomatic
and other essential government personnel."

It can also identify individuals for e-business security and check certain
biological functions and alert a monitoring facility if it detects a medical
emergency.

"We believe its potential for improving individual and e-business security
and enhancing the quality of life for millions of people is virtually
limitless," said ADS Chairman and CEO Richard Sullivan in a statement.

Fearing that "virtually limitless" potential, critics contend that
monitoring systems wind up being used for other than the original purposes.

"Over the years we moved from fingerprinting convicts to routinely
footprinting infants in hospitals," Rotenberg said.

He worries that this new surveillance technology could eventually restrict
freedoms of the general public.

"I think the use of implants for tracking is crossing into a new territory,"
Rotenberg said. "It gets us closer to an Orwellian '1984.'"

Patent documents refer to the device as a "personal tracking and recovery
system." But ADS said the device, named the Digital Angel, could also have
non-human applications. For example, it could be secretly hidden on or in
valuable personal belongings and works of art.

ADS said the technology could "tap into a vast global market" that is
expected to eventually exceed $100 billion.

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