RFID Is Getting Under People's Skin

By Ellen Messmer
Network World (US)

Joseph Krull doesn't have a chip on his shoulder. But he has one in it.

The San Antonio security consultant is one of a small but growing
number of people who essentially turn themselves into wireless network
nodes for the sake of making personal information available to
authorized parties with the wave of a radio frequency identification
(RFID) scanner.

In Krull's case, the chip was implanted two months ago so hospital
staff could access his medical information quickly in emergency
situations. Others are "getting chipped," as those in the know call
it, for everything from entertainment to personal safety.

Krull's chip is basically the same kind of RFID-based technology
that's been used for years to tag dogs so they can be identified 
if lost, except the human chip works on a different radio frequency.

Applied Digital, on behalf of its subsidiary VeriChip, got
authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last
October to sell the chips for human implantation, about 1,000 chips
have gone live.

"I have a blown pupil, a detached retina, in my left eye from a skiing
accident," says Krull, explaining his decision to have a physician
with a syringe stick a chip in him under local anesthetic in what he
described as a fairly simple procedure. "I'm supposed to wear a
MedAlert bracelet because one of the indicators of a head injury is 
a blown pupil. One thing they might do in that kind of emergency is
drill holes in your skull."

The thought of having holes unnecessarily drilled into his head,
because of a misdiagnosis during a medical emergency, got Krull
thinking about having a chip implanted after he heard about it 
during a conference in Spain. "I wanted to get chipped," he says.

His family u wife, sisters, nephews and nieces u was wary.

"They said, 'Are you nuts?' They had a lot of questions, like will 
the chip be visible or is there a risk of rejection," Krull says.

Now officially human No. 1020000000, Krull can access his personal
data stored online at VeriChip's portal and make any changes he wants
by using a reader and a PIN code. Krull elected to store his medical
information and address, phone numbers, fax and e-mail at the Web
site.

While his family has grown relaxed about it all, "the biggest
opposition is from people in my own field - security," Krull points
out. Critics say the chip poses a huge privacy and security threat
that will let the government and private-sector snoops get personal
information.

(snip / snip / snip)

(c) 2002-2005 Bio-IT World Inc

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Full article at Raiders News Update ....
http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/lead-story7.htm


Cheers, Steve..

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