Homeless to be Implanted with Subdermal RFID Tags

An anonymous reader writes "Politech has the scoop on the Bush administration's plans to forcibly implant RFID tags into homeless people in participating U.S. cities. Here's an excerpt from the UPI article: "The miniscule RFID tags are no larger than a matchstick and will be implanted subdermally, meaning under the skin. Data from RFID tracking stations mounted on telephone poles will be transmitted to police and social service workers, who will use custom Windows NT software to track movements of the homeless in real time... A second phase of the project, scheduled to be completed in early 2005, will wirelessly transmit live information on the locations of homeless people to handheld computers running the Windows CE operating system.""

Comments

This is not entirely a joke.

[macshune]

Although the story is an exaggeration of the actual program, which does not use RFID, there is a real program called Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) being developed by the Department of Housing and Development. From my cursory glance, it seems as though it's a program to collect data on homeless in the name of cutting down crime and assisting them, rather than full-on movement tracking (think of the infrastructure costs!). Anyhow, EPIC discusses it here

Re:This is not entirely a joke.

[paxmark1]

Was posted on previously - /. August 19th. Me, I know it is a April fools joke. However, I lived with the homeless for 6 years. Many of the people I lived long term with were either Korean War vets or Vietnam War vets. I found that easier than doing the family side end of it. You never get it out of your head the eyes of some of the homeless kids. It has been 13 years since I lived with the homeless. Best thing I ever did was sell my homeless shelter (Rufus Jones House) to Catholic Social Services for $5. St. Joseph's house has been full ever since of homeless families. And so it is an April Fools' joke. It will be no joke if trends in Yank politics continue, signing off, one US citizen working on landed residency in Canada.

Re:Not actually too far from reality

[tanguyr]

"Some time after six the gates opened and we began to file in one at a time. In the yard was an office where an official entered in a ledger our names and trades and ages, also the places we were coming from and going to --this last is intended to keep a check on the movements of tramps. I gave my trade as 'painter'; I had painted water-colours--who has not? The official also asked us whether we had any money, and every man said no. It is against the law to enter the spike with more than eightpence, and any sum less than this one is supposed to hand over at the gate."

From "Down and Out in Paris and London" by George Orwell - a non fiction book
read it online for free here.

Re:One step closer to a Gattacan Society....

[iminplaya]

The homeless are the only group that's not being tracked at the moment.
All the rest of you are already being tracked by your:
credit card
membership card (wall mart, sams, grocery store, etc.)
utility bills
bank
employer(time cards, drug testing, etc.)
state ID
IRS
ISP
slashdot(you never know)
Did I miss anything?

Re:One step closer to a Gattacan Society....

[Undefined Parameter]

Did I miss anything?

Only your brain.

(Sorry... I'm in a bad mood and I have some karma to burn. 'Twas not intended as a comment on you as a person, of course.)

The RFID chips would be tracking realtime movement rather than traffic stops, debts, or purchases. While the items in your list can track the periodic locations of a person, they do not provide realtime location data.

As for the article: I'm pretty sure it's an "April Fool's" prank, just picked up a bit late. After all, the RFID detectors would need some kind of return response, and I don't imagine that the RFID tags could have that much antenna power (or electric power at all, for that matter). Not to mention that the whole thing would be flawed by the problems encountered with underground telephone lines and cutting tools which might be used to remove an RFID chip (and for extra fun, that chip could be placed underneath a stray cat's collar or wrapped in tin foil for a magpie or crow to pick up).

So... I'm not ready to believe this information, just yet.

If I see it a week from now, I'll consider it with more weight.

~UP

Re:What the #$%#?

[ultranova]

this power source would require the device to be external or removed/replaced everytime the battery dies

Unless, of course, the power source gets it's power from the movement of body. I have seen such power sources on wristwatches.

You could also make use of the constantly changing pressure in blood vessels to power pietzoelectric crystals, or you could put a little turbine inside some blood vessel or windpipe (thought that might be irritating to the subject), or you could simply put the generator to the elbow joint and connect it with rods to the bones, generating power each time you move your arms. And, of course, there's always the ever-popular blood-sugar fuel cell, or a methane fuel cell for the inner surface of the intestines.

The human body is, in essence, a mobile power plant turning chemical energy into kinetic energy. There's no shortage of power inside a power plant...

My personal favorite of these is the blood-vessel turbine. It's simple and almost impossible to remove without a hospital. On the bad side, it's also quite hard to put in place in the first place. The methane fuel cell would also be quite hard to remove if properly attached, and would be easy to install (coat with something that prevents attachment but melts in the guts, then force subject to eat it).

Also, you could make the thing transmit only when it receives the proper signal, which would make the battery last a long time. And you might be able to charge it by harvesting ambient radio waves (they cause an electric current in the antenna, after all), or maybe even replace a full-blown RFID chip with a reflector tuned to a certain frequency and having a distinct pattern in reflected light, removing the need for power source entirely (kinda like using mirrors to send signals by reflecting sunlight).

So be afraid, be very afraid...