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FDA Approves Implantable Microchips

phrontist writes: "Wired is running a story about the Federal Drug Administration ruling that an 'implantable microchip used for ID purposes is not a regulated device, paving the way for the chip's immediate sale in the United States.' Spooky."

8 of 318 comments (clear)

  1. Um headline error by cdf12345 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I believe that the FDA did not approve the implants, but rather decided that they are not medical and therefore not under the jurisdiction of the FDA. There's a big difference between being unregulated by the FDA and being approved by the FDA.

    Maybe a small update could clear things up.

    --
    Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
  2. Re:Spooky? Not if you're a parent. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So the time when kids used to be kids and could do whatever hell they wanted is over. Now, they're prisoners in their own family, and if they're abused there's nowhere to run or hide. They absolutely have to follow all the silly rules. There isn't really any moral dilemma for them to ponder either. Either they do as they're told, or get reeled in by their parents. Another victory for technology! It'll solve all our problems. Yeeehaw!

    Excuse me if I'm being sarcastic, but the more you limit a child instead of teaching what is a good idea and not AND WHY, the bigger chance they'll rebel straight into dope-hell. The problem today is that most parents are not fit to have a child at all. They're just too immature.

  3. Makes life much easier.. by AftanGustur · · Score: 3, Insightful


    ... for the terrorists..

    Just think about it. Instead of having to find the passports of all the passengers of a airplane/bus/tourist group, and then find out all the Americans so they can be shot, you only have to wave a tag reader around the group.
    Much easier. You can even just take it out on a walk in some tourist place and when you get that 'beep' for an american he can be shot right there on the spot.

    This also solves problems of double nationalities when people have 2 passports and you only find the european one.

    Ahh, life vill be sweet ..

    --
    echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
  4. Precision Antipersonnel Strike by jvonk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It seems apparent that the scanning range on the device is limited by its passive design; however, consider the possibilities which abound if these become ubiquitous identification devices--bombs programmed to detonate only upon decoding the correct (supposedly unique) ID, etc.

    Want a confirmed kill? Seems reasonable... assassination devices could be implanted in everyday items or places, merely waiting for the intended target to enter proximity. This could open a whole new world for precision, stand-off assassination!

  5. Never by Perdo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are you all fucking kidding me? You are all the guys that get hung up about so much as MAC addresses being seen as personnally identifiable on the internet. And none of you are ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGED that the FDA has approved IMPLANTED ID CHIPS? I will DIE before I end up with some fucking chip inside me. I don't have so much as a tattoo on me, I shure as hell don't need my life story on some fucking piece of flash memory inside my ass.

    Watch this story catch sub-1000 posts when it is more important and outragous than any five stories on the hof. I can deal with not being annonymous on the internet. I can choose not to use it if it comes to that. But if I cannot so much as walk down the street without every Corporation, Government and Asshole knowing more about me than I know myself, I am certainly no longer free, not by the greatest stretch of the imagination about "the good of mankind" or "medical miracles" or "protection from kidnapping"

    Gimme a fucking break. Have you seen the first test case family? They are freaks! the son is some 180 iq juvie with dreams of becoming arnold in terminator because he is fat and his lips are too big. Daddy has been smoking weed for 30 years. Mommy a vacant follower who does everything fat assed sonny says because he's smarter than she is. Their fucking quote is "It's all Derik's idea, he is so bright that we are taking his advice on this". Jesus Christ, the kid is still wet behind the ears.

    Derek's list of accomplishments at 14 (the wired article got it wrong):

    He's an MCSE/MCP/A+

    and is the owner of a fucking counsulting business

    You tell me, does everyone here want to follow this jackasses lead?

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

  6. Re:Carefully now. . ! by smirkleton · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Aint it the /. way. Your post makes claims to some sort of historical insight with great aplomb, substituting conviction for any actual substance (historical, logical or otherwise) to support your claims.

    - The Bible, by many accounts, is about 80% Roman propaganda...

    Of course it must be so. The New Testament was written by authors who were persecuted and imprisoned by the Roman Empire, of course, and is absolutely bursting with pointed criticisms of Rome- many uttered by the, er, 'enlightened teacher' Jesus (crucified by the Romans, as pointedly observed in all four Gospels you claim to be pro-Roman propaganda...). The last book of the Bible, 'Revelation', which predicts among other things the then unthinkable future cashless economic society and the Mark of the Beast (among other things also becoming manifest in our time) must also somehow be pro-Roman propaganda, too. Right? Even though the author was writing the book in exile on the Isle of Patmos by the Romans? Even though the Romans decimated Jerusalem in 70AD and persecuted the Christians for sport?

    The Old Testament was written prior to the existence of any dominant Roman empire, but I'll set those facts aside like any /. user who moderates you up, since you clearly seem to believe you know what you're talking about. I'll try not to be disturbed, of course, by the irrefutable evidence that the prophetic book of Daniel, written in the Babylonian captivity, specifically foretold of the coming of a dominant Roman empire because, you know, I trust your biased, unsupported claims more than any valid proofs that might contradict them.

    Calling the Bible "Roman propaganda", in the face of so many more facts than you would have the attention span to endure reading, is about as ludicrious as calling 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' a pro-slavery tract, or the Constitution of the United States a pro-Monarchy creed. It is flatly, even laughably ignorant. But if you say it with enough conviction, in a flurry of equally uninformed but impassioned errors, I'll simply but reason aside like any other child of postmodernism here and mod you up to +5 Insightful.

    Let me guess, too, while we're at it. You're 'pro-chip implant', right? I should ignore those pro-Roman ravings from that apostle John dude who warned that taking the 'Mark of the Beast' (some tattoo or implant required in the last days in order to buy or sell goods) was consigning oneself to eternal damnation. If his prophecy comes to pass in our lifetimes, I should trust your insights about the non-linear universe? I mean, if I'm wrong to trust you over him, its no biggie. It's just eternal damnation, separation from God for all eternity in a place where the fire isn't quenched and the worm does not die, right? It's not like I'd have anything better to do, forever. And ever. And ever.
  7. Don't need a chip by Catbeller · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You could wear a braclet with the chip embedded, or your fingerprint could be matched to a database, or your DNA, or your retinal pattern.

    The chip is a device to monitor movement. All other uses are an obfuscation of this fact.

  8. This is how it will go down by Catbeller · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At first, the implantable chips will be used, just like now, to contain medical info and some identification. And for paranoid parents, living in the safest communities in the history of the human race, it will be used as an anti-milk carton safety device.

    The use for medical info is silly. Such a chip could be put into a watch, or a bracelet, or an earring, or a pendant.

    The use for children will endear the tracker to parents, but think: if the chip responds to a radio signal, than a rather cheap device can be built to find the chip on the child's body. A person sick enough to kidnap a child would have no problem cutting the chip out of the body. They might even think it an extra dollop of fun.

    So, I ask, why a chip...

    Well, first of all, it's going to make its developers rich, as it becomes more widely used, and eventually, mandatory.

    The first effect of the the chip's existence is the acclimatization of people to the idea that a device can be implanted into them which will enable others to track their movements. Our generation will balk, but the next will be okay with it, and the one after won't even question it. Think of urine tests for jobs, and endless civil rights violations commonly committed today in the name of fighting drugs, and now, terrorism.

    Next, the chip will be implanted involunarily into former felons, and later into 'lawbreakers' at a judge's discretion. All these uses will be applauded in the name of public safety. Of course, the number of people now regarded as "felons" is swelling, now that the drug laws are being enforced in a draconian fashion. There are probably millions of people qualified today to wear a chip by legislative or judicial decree.

    Of course, a real criminal will find a way to circumvent the device, or remove it entirely. Only moderately law-abiding people will continue to carry it.

    next up, you guessed it, Businesses! In the name of preventing terrorism, monitoring employee theft of materiel or company time, and just plain convenience, lower level employees (NEVER executives, unless there is a security reason to do so) will find that having the chip implanted is a requirement for employment. At first, we'll see defense-related companies requiring trackers, but after that gains acceptance, then other companies will follow... eventually most of them, or at least the ones that pay well, will require some sort of tracker.

    Of course, Schools!! Thinking Of The Children, we will of course require our threatened kinder to wear these devices as a condition of even having an education. It'll start out small, somewhere -- a schoolyeard killing with no way of finding the killer, or a child molestation, crimes that will make a privacy proponent think hard when it comes to protesting. but like metal detectors, drug testing, strip searches, and the like, it'll be accepted. As the majority of the current SCOTUS opines, if you are underage, you have no constitutional rights. And if you protest, you are a DRUGGIE parent who should send your kids to a DRUGGIE school. (I'm not making that last part up. It's staggering.)

    Let's see: next up, consumer convenience. A chip, in addition to tracking, can give you e-cash abilities. Buy a coke, pay for it by swiping your hand into a detector. That may be a killer app.

    The chip can be used for national ID, eliminating all the birth certificates, social security cards, drivers' licenses, company ID's, resumes, credit histories... endless stuff. People will find this liberating.

    But it also means: anyone who wants to, will be able to track your movements for the totality of your life, at least the parts where you interact with society.

    It means that, increasingly, to get an education, to get student loans, to enter the country, to get a job, to have a career, to get a passport, you will have to surrender your body to an implant gun. And now since the FDA has so conveniently taken medical people out of the loop, anyone can demand to shove one into you, literally.

    And since the U.S. is now forcing other countries to change their constitutions (think Norway, I recall, and the Scientologists) to reflect our laws, there will be increasingly no place to go to get away from this. Hell, the U.S. may be one of the more relaxed implementations.

    If any of you think that this is acceptable, then there is nothing I can say that will change your mind. And I will attempt to establish a new country on a Pacific island, I swear.