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RFID Tags To Track Foreigners, Identify Dead
An anonymous reader writes "U.S. security officials say they will use RFID technology at border posts with Canada and Mexico to track foreigners driving in and out of the United States. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said wireless chips for vehicles would become mandatory at designated border crossings in Canada and Mexico as of Aug. 4. At the same time, British officials are considering using RFID chips to identify the dead in the wake of a disaster." From the British article: "...following the bomb blasts on the London Underground, the process of identifying some bodies - particularly on the deep-lying Piccadilly Line - became very difficult, with some families upset by the amount of time it took to confirm a relative had died. VeriChip advocates argue it could help in these circumstances. "
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will install radio frequency technology at five border posts with Canada and Mexico to track foreigners driving in and out of North America.
It will start with only five, pushing those that really want to get in to the other posts that do not issue the tags. It could also create a situation where potential criminals would leave their tagged car parked at a metropolitan hotel and use mass transit or even steal a completely different car so that they would be able to continue their mission without being tracked. This plan accomplishes nothing but making RFID
tags seem like a viable terrorism fighting tool. Thanks for yet another worthless band-aid that is only meant to ease the public's notion of what RFIDs do.
The mandatory program will apply, however, to all foreigners with U.S. visas--including those from the 27 countries whose citizens don't need visas for short U.S. visits--who cross into the United States at those points.
Of course this only applies to everyone else and not US Citizens. First they came for foo, then they came for you, and because skewed data about these tags seem to make our country safer we will be "asked" to add them to our cars so that the government can track if someone else commits a crime w/our automobile...then they came for me as I was the only one left.
As long as they keep tightening the reigns under the guise of "stopping terrorism" the sheep will continue to herd happily under the darkening skies.
This whole concept scares me. It's ramifications could extend well beyond assisting with finding bodies. I for one don't want the government tracking my every move. Talk about losing civil rights.
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
If you're really worried about being identified when you've been blown up, then wear dog tags.
The idea of implanting a chip that can be surreptitiously read at any time is just stupid, frankly.
Plant an RFID chip in every person and track their movements over their entire life so that it's easier to identify them once they die. Makes sense to me...
Actually, this would be ok as long as the chip DIDN'T respond until you died...but I don't think it is possible to engineer that requirement with today's technology. Besides that, if you get blown up the chip is only going to identify the body part where it resides. Of course, if it resides in a critical body part and that part is no longer attached to the rest of you body then it would probably be safe to assume you were dead...
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
...tatoo'd on your forarm or torso (base of neck, maybe?) for dead body IDs. It requires no expensive reader or propritary implant. But that's not very techological, and not politically correct.
Same thing, different method.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The only way it would work as a process is if every foreigner dutifully keeps their document during their whole stay in the US. What if you lose your paper? Any penalty? And exactly what does the RFID chip accomplish? Everyone still has to check in and check out. So it makes it more convenience for the border patrol? If you are a terrorist, are you going to carry an RFID chip just to make the border patrol's job easier? Why not steal someone else's chip? Does the process compare the RFID data with their other papers? If not, it doesn't matter what chip you have as long as you have one. And this program costs $500,000 annually per criminal that has been nabbed to date? Wow.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
The problem is the slippery slope. How would RFID have helped identify those poor victims in the London underground? Only if they had RFID embedded in them in the first place. So in essence that is what they are arguing for. It usually begins, "Just think of the chiiiiildren!" with visions of kidnapping scares. Nowadays it's the "but what about terrorism???" scare.
Yes, embedding RFID in every person on earth would aid law enforcement quite a bit. It would help you keep track of your kids, and you could Lojack them if they were ever kidnapped. On the other hand, just think how nice it would be for the government to track everyone they view as a dissident, or an environmentalist, or a Democrat (oh wait, it hasn't reached that point...yet). Just think how marketers would love to be able to track your movement so as to show you an ad as you approached their kiosk or store or billboard. Just think how useful this will be to stalkers!
You can make an entirely safe populace by placing everyone in solitary confinement in a vast prison system. But is that really what you want? Similarly here, there are indeed advantages to RFIDing the populace. But can we please think about all of the implications, and not just listen to industry arguments?
Lobbying congress for RFID initiatives : : :
$200,000,000
350 million RFID chips
3,500,000,000$
Tracking the location of every single potential customer at any time you wish
priceless
Some things just can't be bought. For everything else, there's dirty politics.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
More bullshit about how "9/11 changed everything". The planebombers used real IDs - obscuring their identity wasn't an obstacle to catching them. Bad guys crossing the border will obviously just switch cars to avoid RFID detection.
This RFID program is yet another way to follow the government's failure to protect us from 9/11 with their own attacks on our freedom. It's welfare for security/defense corporations, privacy invasion for the fascists, more terror to keep us scared and manageable, and a tech smokescreen to cover the fact that they're not actually doing enough to actually protect us from the real threats. WHERE'S OSAMA? How about forcing Pakistan to put an RFID chip into everyone caught crossing the Afghani border? Then we might actually catch some terrorists. And the idea of the government forcing innocent people to be dehumanized into a number could instead be experimented on a some people who we would otherwise just shoot, in the old dehumanizing calculus of war.
--
make install -not war
If the President is allowed to know exactly where my butt is at any one time, will I, his employer, be able to track where his butt is at any one time? No? Then buzz off.
The problem with all this surveillance and Big Brother stuff is that it does nothing to deter the determined malefactor. It will only erase the freedom and privacy of the innocent. And the more of this crap they push through, the more of the innocent will get fed up and become malefactors because the government will not listen. Imagine dozens of Timothy McVeighs striking everywhere, without warning.
This is the wrong road to be heading down, folks.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Yup. It almost seems that the underlying message is that tourism is a threat to national security and should be outlawed. Obviously the whole tourist industry would be seriously pissed if it were just outlawed and tourists barred entry, but fingerprint them, tag them, etc, and eventually they'll clue in and just stop coming.
I had a trip down there (I'm in Canada) planned for November but forget it. I get the message. I doubt the economy of California will collapse for my not going, but I also doubt I'm the only one who will regard this as a discouragement to visit.
Loose lips lose spit.
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
_________________________________
If ever there was a need for someone who had the insight that this man had, now is the time.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Use these to track politicians.
If there's one group in this society I don't trust...
I hope the RFID chip gets implanted somewhere superficial and unimportant so that criminals don't need to hurt me too much to steal my RFID chip.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
No, I think that you will find us old-timers fighting against this. With it, the gov. can track your every move. Go though a toll-road exchange, and the rfid records you. Go to the airport, and when you go through security, they know. My guess is that stores will move to rfid to handle their security. In doing so, the gov. will come into stores, and tell them that they need access to the computer - remotely. At that point, if you use a store, as you walk through the ant-theft, the feds. are notified.
And for those of you who say that it can never happen, well, I know ppl who are much older than myself. And they will tell you that we could never be attacked. Likewise, we would never allow a universal ID (drivers license). And they would tell you that the gov. would never be allowed to have an unlimited warrent. etc. etc.
And I knew a few that would tell that republicans would never break any law. They would never do break-ins or do cover up. Likewise, they would never trade hostages for guns. Nor would any American government keep a traitor in the white house who would out a CIA agent to help their own party; They all know that citizens come above party politics. Yes, these dead ppl knew that are gov. would not be like that. And yet, here we stand.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Tourism, business, science,... you name it.
I, for one, would love to visit USA on a business trip, to participate in certain world class scientific conferences that are annually held over there and meet the colleagues I've got over there. However, even today I would have to submit my fingerprints and maybe some biometric information to enter which, at least in part, has held me back. If in the future I would also have to carry an RFID on my person at all times... no way.
The owls are not what they seem
Agreed - one thing that kinda amuses me is that no one's up in arms about the idea that the Feds can already locate your cell phone ;-)
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
This is only done to protect us. It only hinders the bad people. The government is only here to protect us.
Fight Spammers!
Suppose this tourist goes shopping at Wal-Mart and then gets blown up by a suicide bomber and the explosion causes a tragic mixup of RFID tags.
Will the police inform Proctor & Gamble that a tube of Vanilla Mint Crest toothpaste(on sale for just $1.99!) was tragically killed in the exploision?
I used to program RDIF Chips. Sometimes we would have numerous chips in the same room with us and we've have a problem selecting a particular chip. The solution: We used a simple wire shelf that was laying around between the RFID Chips and the antenna. This was so effective that whenever anyone needed to block other tags in their cube farm, they'd ask, "When you going to be done with the shelf?"
Now, take the concept of the faraday cage and weave it into clothing - a Faraday Suit, if you will. Instantly, you've blocked the RFID chip's response and effectively removed yourself from being spied on (Or having your criminal activity being noted with your name).
Slightly off topic, but considere this:
let's consider the new gamma ray riot(crowd) control weapon that is in development and about to be tested/deployed in Iraq. If this chip is embedded inside a body and exposed to this ray, it will, potentially, heat up and burst releasing it's chemical make-up inside a person's body - not to mention the cruel heating experience the person will be subjected to.
This whole concept is just bad science, bad politics and bad thinking.