UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Jack Schmidig, the police chief in Bergen County, N.J., has a similar chip that doctors can use to find his medical records in an emergency.
And in a somewhat renegade use of the technology, Washington state entrepreneur Amal Graafstra unlocks his home and car and logs on to his computer using a chip he bought online and had implanted near his thumb.
All three say putting radio-frequency identification chips under the skin can improve people's lives. An implant is like having a set of keys, or an ID card, that can't be lost, they say. Graafstra jokes that he could end up naked in the alley outside his house and still get inside using the electronic key embedded in his hand.
“People ask me why I don't just carry an RFID card in my wallet,” Graafstra said. “I don't want to have to remember whether I have my card or my keys with me. I can leave my house and not carry anything with me.”
Privacy advocates say today's voluntary use is a step toward a future in which employers or the government mandate implants.
“It's creepy,” said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. “People realize in their gut that if we require implanted chips, we've become the kind of society where people can be tracked by their government.”
Good or bad, the technology is having a breakout year in the United States.
Last month, Darks' security video company, Citywatcher.com, became the first in the nation to use RFID implants to control who has access to a restricted area.
Nationwide, about 70 hospitals – none in San Diego – are developing or have begun programs to make the implants available to patients and to put RFID scanners in emergency rooms to scan all unconscious patients.
Those applications use the only radio ID chip approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for implanting in humans, a product from Florida-based VeriChip that's about the size of a grain of rice. Doctors use a syringe and a local anesthetic to insert them under the skin.
Critics say the devices offers the government, employers or corporations a potentially nefarious tool to track citizens. There are several types of RFID, but the technology available from VeriChip and the versions used by the do-it-yourself crowd don't provide a signal that can be tracked.
The chips don't use batteries or any other power source. To work, the they must be held within a few inches of a scanner. Through a process called induction, the scanner temporarily powers the chip by generating a magnetic field that passes through the skin. While it has power, the chip transmits a signal that's picked up by the scanner.
VeriChip says about 70 people in the United States have been implanted with its chips, which cost about $200, including doctors' fees.
In addition, an estimated 80 people have had unauthorized “hobbyist” chips implanted. Like Graafstra, they buy them over the Internet to experiment with the technology, which has been used for years to track lost pets. The technology enthusiasts describe themselves as the “do-it-yourself tagged community.”
The United States lags other countries in adopting radio ID implants. In Mexico in 2004, more than 100 employees in the organized-crime division of the Attorney General's Office received implants giving them access to secure areas.
That same year in Spain, the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona launched a VIP zone for patrons with radio ID implants. VIP members use them to authorize credit-card payments for their drinks. The club's owners have expanded the program to a bar they own in the Netherlands.
At Citywatcher.com, which operates security cameras and stores video for the Cincinnati Police Department, Darks wanted to beef up security for the area where the video is stored.
Biometric systems, which measure unique physical characteristics such as fingerprints or facial structure, were too expensive for his small company, Darks said. So he decided to use the VeriChip system.
He had a radio ID chip placed in his tricep and gave his employees the option of getting chipped.
Three volunteered. Two others carry RFID cards.
“It was completely voluntary,” Darks said. “I wouldn't ask my employees to do something that I wouldn't do myself.”
The implanted device is essentially just an unseen key card, he said.
“I'm not worried about the government or anyone else tracking me through the chip in my arm,” Darks said. “If they wanted to, they could use the GPS information from my cell phone or the trail of places where I've used my credit card. That's much more of a threat.”
Schmidig, the New Jersey police chief, got a VeriChip implant for other reasons. He said a friend's daughter had an episode of diabetic shock and was unable to speak, which delayed medical treatment. At about the same time, he heard about a nearby hospital implementing the VeriChip system.
So Schmidig decided to have a medical ID chip implanted in his arm.
“I have a vacation home in Florida, and there are hospitals down there using this system,” he said. “All my medical records are up here. If something happens to me in Florida, this could speed up access to my medical records.”
Schmidig said he has no concerns about privacy as a result of his implant. His chip doesn't contain any personal information, only an ID number for a medical database.
“I'm not a Big Brother fanatic,” he said. “This is not GPS that can be used to follow me around.”
Graafstra of Bellingham, Wash., is a technology enthusiast and author of “RFID Toys: 11 Cool Projects for Home, Office and Entertainment,” published this year.
A year ago, he decided to take his interest in radio ID technology to a new level, becoming the founding member of the do-it-yourself RFID world. Graafstra bought a chip on the Internet and had a doctor insert it in the tissue between his thumb and index finger.
Graafstra said it's unlikely that anyone would go to the trouble of trying to hack his chip to get the code to his front door. It would be easier to force the door open, he said.
“There's very little possibility that anyone could sneak up and get within a couple of inches of my tag to read it,” he said.
While he's comfortable having the code to open his front door and car in a radio transponder in his hand, Graafstra says the technology may not be secure enough to protect credit-card information or access to sensitive government offices.
Although difficult, it's still possible to record and clone the signal from an implanted chip, he said.
Critics say the practice opens a door that would be best left closed.
“RFID has the potential to produce some wonderful applications,” said Givens, the San Diego privacy advocate. “It also has the potential to be a technology with which a government-issued ID number can be read promiscuously.
“It's being rushed to the marketplace without understanding the consequences,” she said. “The privacy implications have not been thoughtfully explored.”
Liz McIntyre, co-author of “Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID,” said she isn't swayed by technical arguments that implanted chips are benign.
“There may be limits on what the technology can do today, but we don't know what the technology will be capable of tomorrow,” McIntyre said. “Yes, it's a step on that slippery slope. You wouldn't walk down the street with your Social Security number printed on your shirt. Why would you want an RFID chip capable of transmitting an identification number?”
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20060312-9999-1n12chip.html
~~~
‘Big Brother’ firms
keep eye on workers
Newsday
An employee enters an unauthorized area of the company, his smart-chip badge triggering a hidden surveillance camera. That sends an alert to a security officer, who uses his laptop or cell phone to monitor what the intruder is up to.
Once the realm of Tom Cruise movies, scenes such as this one are playing out at a worksite near you.
What’s more, employer surveillance of workers and property extends beyond the video screen: The boss can tell what Web sites you’ve visited on office computers, the content of e-mail you haven’t even sent, even your every move through cell phones equipped with global positioning. And coming soon: Employee identification through biometrics – measuring such biological components as fingerprints and voice pattern – as well as grain-of-wheat-sized chips implanted under the skin, turning you, in effect, into an EZPass.
All of which might lead the unsuspecting employee to ask: Just what privacy rights do I have when it comes to electronic monitoring? Darn few, says L. Camille Hebert, law professor at Ohio State University and author of “Employee Privacy Law” (Thomson West).
Certainly, bosses can cite significant reasons for tracking worker activity: Monitoring can go a long way toward cutting down on sexual harassment, workplace accidents and goofing off. Plus, in lawsuits, courts expect employers to be able to hand over electronic evidence.
So such surveillance is on the increase: The use of video monitoring for theft, violence and sabotage rose last year to 51 percent of 526 employers surveyed by the American Management Association and ePolicy Institute; only 33 percent were using such monitoring four years earlier.
The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 – amended in 2001 – gives employers what privacy experts call pretty much carte blanche. Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute in Columbus, Ohio, says the provisions of the act can be translated this way: “The computer system is the property of the employer and as such the employer has the right to monitor Internet activity and e-mail. Employees should have no reasonable expectation to privacy.”
Still, the exchange of privacy for more efficiency and security carries costs when it comes to employee morale, says Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J. He poses these real and potential situations: A woman who found out she was pregnant visited an expectant mothers’ Web site and then got confronted by her boss later that day. Or a worker who sends her doctor an e-mail containing terminology that could also have sexual meaning. Or those subjected to video surveillance in restrooms or changing rooms.
Most employers who use forms of surveillance say they notify their employees. The American Management/ePolicy Institute research found that 80 percent let workers know they’re being monitored for computer content, keystrokes and keyboard time; 82 percent let them know computer files are stored and reviewed; 86 percent, that e-mail is tracked; and 89 percent, that Web visits are monitored.
Despite its potential for abuse, electronic monitoring can and does serve valuable workplace purposes.
Supporters of workplace surveillance point to evidence of its value:
Fourteen nursing home employees in Rochester, N.Y., were charged last month by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer with fraud and falsifying records because they had moved call bells out of patients’ reach so they could watch television or socialize. Their activity was captured when the room of a 70-year-old man with dementia was monitored through video surveillance cameras.
Percentage of employers monitoring some or all of their employees in the following ways:
•Monitoring and reviewing Web Sites visited: 76 percent
•Storing and reviewing e-mail messages: 55 percent
•Using smart-card technology to control building/data center access: 53 percent
•Monitor time spent on the phone and numbers called: 51 percent
•Using video surveillance to counter theft, violence, sabotage: 51 percent
•Saving and reviewing employees’ computer files: 50 percent
•Monitoring time employees spend on computer, content, keystrokes entered: 36 percent
•Taping employee phone conversations: 22 percent
•Using video surveillance to monitor performance: 16 percent
•Taping and reviewing voice mail messages: 15 percent
•Using GPS technology to monitor/track employee ID/smart cards: 8 percent
•Using fingerprints scans to control building/data center access: 5 percent
•Using GPS technology to monitor/track company cell phones: 5 percent
•Using iris scan technology to control building access: 0.5 percent
~~~
[March 17, 2006]
The bugs in the carpet are RFID
(InfoWorld Daily Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
One of Germany's best-known makers of vacuum cleaners and carpets aims to tap
a new market: intelligent flooring embedded with wireless chips.
Vorwerk
& Co. Teppichwerke is launching a textile flooring underlay equipped with
RFID (radio frequency identification) tags, Vorwerk spokesman Thomas Weber said
Friday.
"After three years of research, we're launching field tests with
several companies that intend to use our smart-floor technology," he said.
"We're now able to mass-produce the product."
The RFID-enabled flooring
underlay is the result of a "thinking carpet" project launched together with
German chip maker Infineon Technologiesin 2003.
The smart-floor underlay
can be used to perform a number of tasks, such as navigating automated transport
systems in buildings, according to Weber.
In a first step, together with
InMach Intelligente Maschinen, a robot manufacturer, Vorwerk is offering a
bundled "smart-floor" package consisting of the RFID-enabled underlay, robots,
and software.
The underlay enables robots to orient themselves in a room
and move toward precise targets on the floor, using information stored in the
embedded RFID tags, according to Weber. Systems administrators can manage the
robots from a central point, sending data to them from a control PC via Wi-Fi or
Bluetooth, he said.
The RFID tags consist of a microchip joined to an antenna coil and
attached to an ultra-thin sheet of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic.
Each tag has its own ID number, which can be detected and identified by the
robot's integrated RFID reader from up to 10 centimeters. The power required for
reading the tags is supplied by the robot; the tags are passive, requiring no
electrical voltage.
Industrial floor cleaning could be one application.
Data stored in the chips direct the robot to areas that have to be cleaned and
away from those already cleaned.
Vorwerk intends to market its
smart-floor system to numerous groups, including building managers, hospitals
and nursing homes.
In a next step, the company aims to connect the RFID
tags to form an intelligent network that can track movements and respond,
according to Weber. The networked tags could be used to help secure floors from
intruders or detect nursing home patients who have fallen on the floor, he
said.
The smart-floor technology was demonstrated at the Cebit trade show
in Hanover, Germany, which ended Wednesday.
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