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Mexican Attorney General Gets Microchip in Arm
novakreo writes "Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Mexico's Attorney-General, now has a non-removable microchip in his arm, to track his movements and to give him access to a new crime database, according to Bloomberg. The article says that eventually around 160 Mexican officials will have a chip implanted." (Wired and CNN are both running the very similar Reuters report, too.)
Well, when someone REALLY wants access to the system, all they'll need is a saw.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
...EVERYTHING is removeable. The question is what happens when you do.
Record his transponder signal, and throw a copy of his chip over the border fence into the USA...
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The technology exists such that they could in theory make this thing only operate when pysically attached to the body ( say, powered off of blood or bloodflow ), and only operate when in contact with his specific blood type.
So to use it, a perpetraitor would have to a) Kidnap him, b ) cut off his arm, c) surgically graft the thing into someone else with the same blood type.
Hopefully by that point they'd have de-activated his chip.
I imagine in a few years we'd even be able to make these things DNA specific.
"can't be removed" -- I doubt that. *Anything* can be removed from the human body if the remover the required skill and doesn't really care about collateral damage.
I suddenly have a mental image of a Mexican criminal trying to get into a government installation carrying an arm...
anyone else doubt the tracking ability of this thing? it would need both a fairly decent rx/antenna, and also a fairly good transmitter to get that info back out. since mexico isn't known for the incredible cell coverage, the incoming part would at least have to be gps. outgoing could be cell, but would be better served by satellite also. So they fit two satellite radio devices into this guy, complete with high gain antennas?
Well, do you kick hin in the ass to reboot the thing?
What, with an internal heads-up-display, a la the Terminator
I am Attorney Sancho Panza of Borg, prepare to be indicted!
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Civilian contractors in Iraq need this technology
not Mexican Attorney Generals.
can you run linux on Him? Now that's what I call an Embedded solution.
En Rusia soviética, el microchip le programa!
``The system is already in place and I already have it,'' he said. ``It's only for access, for security and so that I can also be located at any moment anywhere I am.''
If I have the key I can drop an NLOS on you ass baby!
http://www.raytheon.com/products/nlos/
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
I suppose you intended this a humor, but I fear you're right. I suspect Homeland Security -- or actually, the U.S. Treasury, may even be behind this.
From the article: The chip can't be removed, but will be deactivated after Macedo's term as attorney general expires, he said.
Now, did Mexico implant 160 government employees with non-removable chips at the behest of the Bush Administration?
According to Fox News (emphasis orthogonal's):
Were employees told to get the chip or to find another job? Especially bad is that the chip can be "deactivated" but not removed. Even deactivated, can it be detected? Conversely, if it can't be detected after detection because it has its, for instance, own power source which is turned off by deactivation -- unlike RFID chips which reflect the powered signal of a detector --, what do you do when the power runs out? Stick in yet another chip?
I realize the price of dealing with a superpower can be high, but I never imagined that it would be as high as treating your country's citizens like livestock.
This is terribly dehumanizing. Employees no longer just have an employee number, then have serial number like any animal on a feedlot, like any other cog in a machine -- and they don't just have it, they have it inside them. This is dystopian science fiction reified.
The chip is reminiscent of the terrible and also un-removable serial number tattoos that Nazis forced on Jews and other concentration camp inmates.
And I'm sure certain Christians will recall the "Number of the Beast" in the Christian Book of Revelation.
Regardless of the recollections that spring to mind, this is a horrible defeat for humans and for humanity, and a great victory for the omnipresent, omnipotent "Big Brother" State.
Shout out against this now -- shout to the roof tops -- or in ten years you'll have to decide between getting a chip of your own or losing your job -- and in twenty years, some bland man from Homeland Security will tell you that for "security reasons, you understand" you have no choice at all to refuse a chip.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
this will stop as soon as terrorist use RFID sensors to "trigger personalised" bombs.
A few months ago i was consultant for a goverment agency. They were plannng to install RFID chips into the cars of VIPs to save them from stopping at the parkhouse entrance of that agency. The goal was to avoid stops and deny snipers a shot. We were able to convince them that this was "not a good idea" ®SMALL>TM.
Regards, Martin
Think about it. You want to threaten the bad guys, who are a little less educated and a whole lot more guilable then you are. In that light you concoct a story that makes it sound like this database is being watched with "superhuman" effeciency by the head in each district. Throw in the part about tracking and non removable to make kidnapping seem dangerous, and you keep the officials safe on top of it.
This sounds like it is the high tech version of the "This is protected by an alarm system." sticker. Instead of just buying them and sticking them on your windows, you do a press conference.
Exactly - and in much of Central and South America, kidnapping for ransom is a large and growing problem. I sometimes travel internationally on business, and there's no way I'd head down there these days. Fortunately for me, I usually head to Scandanavia. I'll let the Swedish Bikini Team take me hostage anytime...
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When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
When the only tool you have is a shotgun, every problem looks for the nearest exit.
But when the only tool you have is an axe, every problem looks like hours of gleeful, giddy, glorious fun!
hedless man:
1. My take on it is that they mean "not trivially removeable", like a wristwatch. It's under the skin, I doubt it's grafted to the bone.
2. His RFID code can be read to allow him access to the bank. It's a heck of a lot better than a driver's license as ID.
3. Kidnapping is a HUGE problem in Mexico. huge. Hollywood put Denzel Washington in a movie, "Man on Fire" - about the kidnapping rings in Mexico. Vincente Fox has been asked to crack down on the issue. Mexican police are shot at about as often as U.S. forces in Baghdad, i.e. just about daily. You just don't read about it unless you read Spanish newspapers, like La Raza or others. At this point, RFID might be a minor deterrent to kidnapping. But it might just persuade potential enemies to just kill him outright in the street. In fact, they may put a hit on the guy JUST TO SEND A MESSAGE.
I see a world like the one in Minority Report within my lifetime, and I'm 35. The Gap has a electronic voice that greets you as you walk in. Every subway car you board goes into a database. Every transaction your credit card makes goes through a heuristic filter for abnormal pattern matching, and certain kinds of deviations get you reported automatically to the government. RFID is just the means to make it happen.
...And he supports NAFTA, which most people would agree benefits Mexico at least slightly more than the U.S.
Absolutely not! NAFTA benefits the US far more than it benefits Mexico. The US has been blocking a lot of mexican products and services from entering the country because of protectionist lobbying.
Just one example: USian truck drivers can enter Mexico without any trouble since day one of NAFTA, Mexican truck drivers are being blocked from entering the US because of lobbying from the teamsters union. Therefore, both US and Mexican producers trying to sell products to either side have to hire USian transports...
Of course nobody has recourse on the WTO against the US, since the WTO is US-based and has never decided against the US in a trade dispute... Combined with the fact that mexican politicians would never do anything to upset Uncle Sam...
No sig for the moment.
(Apologies in advnance for my terrible Spanish)
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...a non-removable microchip in his arm, to ... give him access to a new crime database...
Somewhere in Mexico, an IT guy is laughing his ass off.
Incorrect. The NT with exception of very early Bibles has been translated ONCE. I have a copy of the Critical Greek NT. That flags Manuscripts and their age. Most modern Bibles NIV, NASB, etc... Are heavily based on Codex Siniaticus (4th Century), Codex Vaticanus, and Codex A (5th Century) from Egypt. And various fragments from ealier. Translators do NOT keeping copying other works. The NIV was not a KJV copy. In fact the KJV is based on late Greek Manuscripts from the 11 - 15th Centuries. Although they agree about 99% statisically They NIV translators went back the said Manuscripts and translated. And it does mean right hand and forehead. Only 1-1.5% of the text of OT or NT is disputed and none of it affects any doctrine.
Many are jokes, a few feign seriousness, and there are sometimes one or two that appear to be truly righteously indigant (on Christian grounds) in regards to the technology.
I personally don't touch eschatology, as I have better things to do with my time, but I thought I would repeat (or rather, paraphrase) the insight of a non-Christian poster of several months ago.
Not making any judgment calls (as a Christian myself), but thought I would repeat the insight for the benefit of all.
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
The chip can only be detected at a distance of a few meters. It would help you in getting rescued only if the rescuers are waving a detector over everyone in the room.
Now, if they only equipped politicians with detonation collars..
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
Although I agree that implanting people with chips is pretty dehumanizing, if you agree to a particular job you have to agree with the particular terms of employment, no matter how absurd, if you don't like it then find a new line of work its that simple.
I dunno. Suppose your kids are starving and the only job in town has an indentured servitude clause in their contract. Should that be legally permissible?
You might suggest that the slave employer is at least taking care of his slaves instead of letting them die. However, I'd argue that it is immoral to allow somebody to die of starvation at your doorstep if you have the ability to render immediate aid to prevent this. Sure, I can't be the savior of the world, but if I see a man bleeding to death on the sidewalk of my house and don't even call an ambulence, what does that say of my character?
Some employment conditions should be illegal simply becuase they are inhuman. Employers have a tremendous amount of power - particularly over those without highly in-demand talents or skills. You or I may be able to design computer software or something of high value. Some people are working hard just to be a Walmart greeter. Most normal people are somewhere in-between.
Workplaces are something to be regualted for certain. That doesn't mean that we need expensive regulation that doesn't serve any benefit. However, to just say that an employer-employee relationship isn't anybody's business but their own is very naieve...