Vocal Voices

Did anyone else see that BBC News report tonight about the firm in Sweden who have developed and then offered their employees micro-chips, implanted into their wrist, which will identify them to open electronic keypad doors, offices etc. and even work the photocopier?

It got really sinister when the boss guy said something like, "well, we're just trying this exciting new technology out to iron out the bugs before we're asked by the Government about it ...."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31042477 gives Rory Teflon-Jones' account of it.

Exciting for Whom exactly....

But, yes, the Swedish government is actually that controlling. I know they don't seem that way when you meet them outside of Sweden, but Swede's do expect that level of control....

Interesting country to work in.

Chipped like cats and dogs. Nice.

So, the baddies do not lift your card with its chip and PIN, they just chop your hand off, and if it is the wrong one they come back for the other.

To be honest the chip could carry, say, your retinal biometric data which could then be verified with your eye. Ultra secure.

At some point people will need to trust the governments with their data. I just don't see it being any time soon. One of the guys on the fingerprint biometrics team that came into the bank to work with us on my authentication project told me he has to give his fingerprint for his driving license and it's been that way for quite some time in some states in the US.

What I'm more concerned about with a chip is tracking. Whilst it would have great benefits for Airports etc, the ability of governments to monitor your every move does not appeal...

That's scary

I think it would be a good idea to have records of every person's DNA profile.

Think how it would simplify many crime investigations.

After all, we don't want criminals, do we?

A RFID implant for every newborn...... no more lost toddlers, ahh.

Aggers, those records probably already exist for oh so many people, we just don't know about them, and like CCTV cameras, they will not stop crime.

Aggers wrote:I think it would be a good idea to have records of every person's DNA profile.

Think how it would simplify many crime investigations.

After all, we don't want criminals, do we?

Aggers my son and daughter in law are in the Police. From what they tell me about how "crimefighting" is currently being applied, the last thing we need is guilt by proximity proven by DNA. DNA does not have an expiry date at the scene of a crime, they can't tell how long it has been there. One thing if it is on the body, another if someone picks up an innocuous object you happened to pick up with saliva on your hand and then kills someone with it...

I don't want to go there any more than I want to go with chipping. However, like an ID card, I can see human chipping being mandatory within two centuries. After all, if you told someone from the UK in 1900 that they would have to have papers and carry them with them everywhere you went, they would look at you as if you were mad. Yet Gordon Brown almost made it a reality. Another reason for not voting for the incompetents... Times change.