CA Bill Limits Skin Implantation of RFID Chips

twitter writes with a link to a ZDNet blog entry about a piece of legislation submitted to the California state senate. Drafted by Democratic Senator Joe Simitian, its purpose is to ensure that employers cannot require the implantation of RFID chips as part of employment. It is meeting with scorn from the American Electronics Association. "'Our bottom line is we're opposed to anything that demonizes RFIDs,' she said. 'The technology has been in existence for more than 50 years. It's in more than 1.2 billion ID credentials worldwide. ... We've not seen a single showing of ID theft or harm,' said Roxanne Gould, vice president for California government relations for the American Electronics Association, a high-tech industry group."

Comments

Re:doesn't mean you can't have it

[Tanuki64]

It's a worthless thing. You don't want your chip implanted? Ok, it is your good right to refuse, it is our good right to choose an employee, accepts it.

Re:like ID tattoos?

[megaditto]

I think this is one of those CA bills in search of a problem.

No employer currently requires (or even asks for) the use of RFID implants. Most places are happy when an employers carries theirs as a badge.

I might go so far as to say these implants will never be required since the passive RFID provides static identification only, not authentication, so implanting them gives very little additional security over a photo-ID badge (unlike fingerprints, voice verification, PINs, etc.)

This bill and story are histrionics

[Colin Smith]

Just like nobody wanted to take the drug tests and work for companies, which required them, the RFID implantations won't happen because no company would find employees who would accept them. My company doesn't demand drug tests because they are sane, they know fine well that a significant proportion of their employees would tell them to go and get fucked whether they are users or not. In particular, the ones with talent. You on the other hand seem to have a completely divorced relationship with reality.

Re:This bill and story are histrionics

[Colin Smith]

this has never happened to me, therefore your logic is silly for suggesting it could happen. Do you beleive in god?
Do you believe in fairies?
Do you believe in pink teapots floating round the sun?

I as an atheist have no reason to believe in any of them. Someone who believes in god has to explain why they don't also believe in fairies or pink teapots. It's a simple question of probability. The hysterics are, laughable, because the probabilities of this ever happening are infitesimally small.

The chances that every employer will require implantation, or even drug tests is minute, which means that any who don't will be able to demand lower salaries than those who do, for those employees who value freedom more than a larger paycheck. These employers will have greater productivity and higher profitability in the marketplace. The natural tendency of the marketplace will be to promote the liberal employer and penalise the paranoid one.

It's a non issue. Literally hyperbole.

Re:What a load of hysterical rubbish.

[spun]

I really think that Colin believes that people working for minimum wage are not in fact real people, and don't really matter. They are just some type of intelligent, trainable chimpanzee. We shouldn't be concerned by their plight.