Implanting immigrants with chips?

Tue06Jun2006

Implanting immigrants with chips?

Funny how you have to read the foreign press to get these juicy little stories. It's not Sci-Fi: there's a company pitching the government its tracking technology in the form of implanting chips under the skin of immigrants. According to Spain's 20 Minutos, it's the same type of chip used to track animals:

Human identification chips from the company VeriChip are a bit larger than a grain of rice and inserted under the skin.

In the midst of the immigration debate, the president of said company wasted no time in proposing to Bush that chip be implanted in immigrants.

Some of the principal objections to this iniciative are that it invades an individual's privacy, that it would allow changes to their medical history, and that once implanted, it cannot be removed without professional assistance.

20 Minutos points out that, in an ironic twist, the chip has only been tested on human in one country: Mexico. In addition to that interesting tidbit, according to a U.S. Senator, at least one government official said he would allow his U.S.-bound citizens be implanted with the chips: Álvaro Uribe of Colombia.

True? Who knows. The fact that this is even being brought up is frightening.

Live Science has a good write up on this story. Check it out.

Via / 20 Minutos

Photo via CNet.com