Posted
2/13/2006 05:04:00 PM
by Douglas
Say it with me. . . RFID tags. We're going to be hearing a lot more about these things in the
near future. But not nearly as much as these people, since they voluntarily had them implanted under their skin. [Thanks, long-time reader!]
An Ohio company has embedded silicon chips in two of its employees - the first known case in which US workers have been “tagged” electronically as a way of identifying them.
CityWatcher.com, a private video surveillance company, said it was testing the technology as a way of controlling access to a room where it holds security video footage for government agencies and the police.
Embedding slivers of silicon in workers is likely to add to the controversy over RFID technology, widely seen as one of the next big growth industries.
RFID chips – inexpensive radio transmitters that give off a unique identifying signal – have been implanted in pets or attached to goods so they can be tracked in transit.
In college, I joked that I was going to have my social security number tattooed somewhere so I could stop giving it out to every University office that asked for it. But I realized that if I voluntarily got the tattoo, it would undoubtedly be in the wrong place when it was made mandatory, and I've to get it tattooed again, and I'm just up for that. Who knew that barcodes were going to be
so 20
th century. . . .