According to the Chicago Tribune, there is an Ohio security company that has implanted radio frequency identification (RFID) chips into the arms of its employees. A scanner from about a foot away can read these chips, to validate the person and allow the doors to the office to open for that individual. All the employees say the volunteered to have the chip implanted.
It really does not seem to be a major invasion of individual privacy for this if there is a valid reason for the chips, such as a security precaution, that the chip is voluntary, that the chip can only be read from about a foot away, and that the government is not involved in this process. All of these criteria seem to fit this, so privacy advocates should just calm down and take a chill pill. This technology obviously is going to have larger ramifications down the line, if we start embracing RFID's as the Mexicans and Europeans have:
The U.S. seems a little behind in embracing the technology. Workers at the organized-crime division of Mexico's attorney general in Mexico City, for example, wear the chips to try to maintain top security.
So do about 2,000 patrons of nightclubs in Barcelona, Spain, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. The chips allow them to avoid long waits in lines and to run tabs at the clubs, which are owned by the same firm. Waiters scan the chips and a computer automatically draws the amount due from their checking accounts.
I personally don't think I would subscribe to be branding like an animal, just to get into the top nightclubs, and have my credit card charged automatically. This seems a little more creepy, rather than a simple invasion of privacy. And leave it to those wacky Spanish and Dutch (who used to share a monarch) to utilize this technology in such a innovative way.
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