RFID chip, is it real?

[galaxyAbstractor]

One of my class mates is a bit paranoid in my opinion. He believes that the American government wants to implant microchips (RFID chips) in every human on earth to keep track of them, and implement one global currency. So on this chip, you will have your money to automatically pay for stuff etc, bus card, medicines, GPS tracker so the government knows where you are etc.

Then the government could turn off the chip remotely if you break any law, and what I understand, kill you.

Now for me this seems kinda unlikely because: Why would the American government do this? Also, RFID chips isn't too secure. I seen vids and news articles that you could clone RFID stuff easily. Like those cards you use to get into certain buildings (school, work etc), I've seen reports on people reading them using their own scanner to get the ID, then making a new chip with the same info. Well, then identity theft and robbery would be soo much easier. They had an entire Mythbusters episode on this, but they weren't allowed to air it.

His source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBo4E77ZXo

Discuss

[Smith6612]

Eh, I've heard of these things and this is one thing I don't want done to me. RFID is such an easy technology to jam, as well as an easy technology to gather info from. I'd prefer to use my mind to store information as it was made for, and to enter in my data.

By the way, ThinkGeek has an RFID experimental kit that can be used for many things.

[Sharky]

Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. There's an easy defence mechanism that'll protect you from ALL of these intrusive devices, including aliens, mind-probe tracking, satellites, and radio waves: http://sn.im/sl0mt

[mstring]

Just imagine the chaos EMP weaponry could cause if people depended on technology even more. :P

Also the obvious ethical implications far outweigh whatever benefits the potentially proposed system has.

[farscapeone]

Yes vigge_sWe, you're right. He is paranoid. Just read this:

There is no true national identity card in the United States of America, in the sense that there is no federal agency with nationwide jurisdiction that directly issues such cards to all American citizens. All legislative attempts to create one have failed due to tenacious opposition from liberal and conservative politicians alike, who regard the national identity card as the mark of a totalitarian society.

Form http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identit..._United_States

They can't make nation wide ID cars. How do you expect them to put RFID chips underneath everyones skin then? You can't force everyone to do it, US is democratic country.

On the other hand, imagine how much money and resources would it take to do such a thing. If you have doubts about something just look at if from commercial side and you'll see it clearly ;)

[fractalfeline]

So, are they going to force us all to get chips, or are they supposedly already implanting them in newborn infants or somesuch? (ie Are they going to implement this system by force or by secrecy?)

Meanwhile I prefer to live a more practical life, and concern myself with daily needs. It might not be ~* THE TRUTH *~ and I might be deceiving myself by not listening to conspiracy theories, but in the end, I still have to pay the bills and get up in the morning.

[ah-blabla]

Good luck to the US Government trying to convince other governments to follow with the plan... Shame the US just isn't the Global Power it used to be.

They can't make nation wide ID cars. How do you expect them to put RFID chips underneath everyones skin then? You can't force everyone to do it, US is democratic country.
;)

In most (normal) countries ID cards work / are widespread. It is true that in the USA and the UK you get some rather silly people opposing id cards,and as a result no card, but a better example is most EU countries as a group (except UK) which have an almost identical id card. As a result of some UK citizen's stupidity though I don't hava an id card and as a result when travelling through Europe have to carry my large and bulky passport all the time instead of a small piece of plastic like just about all other Europeans I know. (However recently id card plans for the UK were put through, so the government is finally doing what the most UK citizens want... Unfortunately this is linked to a large database of data about citizens, which is bad.)

And BTW, RFID doesn't allow remote tracking: unless active RFID is used, the chips can only be detected with specialised equipment in very short range (10m -- and that is with very specialised equipment), and even with active RFID you still have a limited range (100 metres?). You would need a separate GPS device to properly track people, which is not very feasible. Using RFID to track people would require lots of RFID scanners installed every 50 metres, even less practical than gps.

And a second BTW, many passports nowadays have RFID in them already. Installing RFID in all citizens wouldn't be particularly hard, the tags are cheap, so the only cost is implantation. In countries with less freedom and only basic democracy (read US, UK, etc. etc.) it wouldn't be hard to imagine such a thing actually being introduced. (If you want a real democracy go to Switzerland: not only do you choose your representatives for parliament, there is also no single president, i.e. presidentship is shared among 7 people. Lastly, most importantly, any large change of laws/any change of laws with some dispute, and all changes of constitution, require a vote by the people. You get voting every few weeks happening here. If you look at USA and UK you have the people choosing representatives, and that's it. You don't have much influence on what actually happens in parliament -- and what's worst is that your representatives in Government usually forgot that they were chosen to represent you.)

[cybrax]

The miracle that is modern mass production makes the cost figures more credible and it is not hard to see how with the aid of a suitable nudge or rather a tug on the collective emotion a population could be persuaded it was a good idea and a better alternative than giving up on life entirely and crawling back into the ocean.

Consider the work of sci-fi author Jack Vance and his "Faceless Man" trilogy, a world where everybody wears an individually coded collar full of explosive and nobody knows the identity of whom controls the detonators.

No drawn out hostage negotitaions, long sieges, Kidnapping, car chases, closer to home things like the terrorist events that occured in both the United States and the far east might never have been so devastaitng had a few heads quite litrally, rolled a bit sooner.

[ah-blabla]

No drawn out hostage negotitaions, long sieges, Kidnapping, car chases, closer to home things like the terrorist events that occured in both the United States and the far east might never have been so devastaitng had a few heads quite litrally, rolled a bit sooner.

Free speech, freedom to act as one wishes etc. would also be down the drain at the same time. You would live in constant fear of saying something the controller doesn't like and ... bam ... you no longer exist in this world. And the logistics of actually monitoring things to prevent such things would be impossible. (The logistics of setting it up isn't particularly hard, but you would need people to monitor the data.)

[ferricadooza]

The idea that RFID surgical implants will be enforced in democratic countries is out there with other whacko theories like 9/11 Conspiracies, moon landing hoax, chemtrails, bigfoot etc etc. It's just another frightener to swell the coffers of the fear- mongers like Alex Jones. It'll never happen. Worry about something more based in reality like air pollution, climate change or deforestation.

ferricadooza