FROM CANNED TOMATOES TO SICK PEOPLE:
EVERYTHING GETS CHIPPED

The army doesn't want to talk about it. Officially that is. However, the commercial market is ready for it: the implanted microchip for people.

The American company Applied Digital Solutions, Inc (ADSX) launched at the end of last year its 'Verichip'; a biochip as small as a grain of rice. The 'fool-proof' chip is planted under the skin by a simple procedure with a local anesthesia. With the use of an external scanner, one can activate the chip, read the data and the identity of the carrier, and if needed send it further by phone or Internet. The chip seems to have a life span of 99 years.

At first – as it is many times the case – this technology will solely be used for medical purposes. The manufacturers claim their chip is the logical result of thousands of implanted pacemakers, artificial joints and cardiac valves. Because they are often subjected to adjustments, repairs or replacements, the chip can keep the doctor up to date about the condition of his patient.

For years, implanted chips are used for animals. The chip that will be used for people is hardly any different. The step from the implanted chip for animals to people has accelerated since the attacks of September 11th, 2001.

But Applied Digital Solutions has bigger plans. In a further stage, a complete medical report could be retracted. Connecting the chip with GPS (Global Positioning System) results in many advantages concerning (temporarily) missing people or animals. The user of the system can pinpoint the carrier to the exact place. Of course via Internet or the mobile phone.

The company has already received thousand of emails from enthusiastic children who think it's very cool. Electronics under the skin could be very well the next trend. They do have to wait however for the approval of the FDA in the USA.

ADSX bought in 2000 the patent for a digital miniature transmitter for 130 million dollar. ADS- executive Richard Sullivan reported in August 2000 that they would present in New York in October – two months earlier than expected – a working prototype of the implanted chip, the 'digital angel'. This technology aims directly at the blooming wireless market. 'For the first time we will show how wireless telecommunication systems and biosensors – capable of measuring and transmitting important physical functions – can be successfully connected with GPS and the Internet', according to Sullivan. After the announcement, their stocks dropped dramatically – against their expectations.

In June 2001, an unexpected press release of Digital Angel Corp. (subsidiary of ADSX) said the development of the implanted 'Digital Angel' would be cancelled. The company would only deal with external, mobile devices - like watches - equipped with the same technology. Strangely enough, the earlier press releases of the company were also adjusted or removed from their website to make the impression that such plans never had occurred.

Possible concerns about the privacy are immediately waved away by the company by saying the whole technology is hundred percent voluntary. How it is exactly with children whose parents want them chipped and how 'voluntary' it is with prisoners and illegal aliens is not explained. In addition, airports could in the future demand from their customers an 'id-chip'. An obligation that's already installed on some airports for animals. In the meantime, Applied Digital Solutions has granted its first contract to apply their chip on tracking prisoners on parole in Los Angeles. The company will try to sell 2.5 to 5 million dollars of 'Verichips' in 2002, which will eventually rise within the next years to 70 – 100 billion dollars worldwide. ADSX is one of the fastest growing companies on the stock exchange.

However, the ambition of Applied Digital Solutions goes even further. They imagine in the future a complete genetic identification code of the carrier connected to the chip. Wired to the nerve system it can register pain and consequently deliver signals that can reduce that pain.

The size of the chip will also considerably be less. At Alien Technolgy Corp. (Morgan Hill, California, USA) they are already debating to use their ultra small RFID chip for people. Their chip, 0.35 mm by 0.35 mm with 900 MHz technology, is applied to a variety of every day products like soap and shampoo to replace the barcode. The coded data is readable within a distance of 85 cm.

This technology has also alerted the interest in bigger companies. The American company Sun Microsystems will start with the application of digital identification of products – Auto-id. Their CEO, Scott McNealy, can't wait for the day when everything has a 'digital heartbeat' – from canned tomatoes and mobile phones to cars and microwave ovens – and connected to the internet. Consumers can do their shopping and have it scanned all at once, after which the money is automatically withdrawn from their account. 'The goal of the 'Auto-id' program is to tell the manufacturer to fill the shelves in the shop', commented Steve Brayton, spokesperson at Gillette, one of the investors of the system. 'Besides that, theft is also being limited.' They work hard to install a global standard. The cost price seems to be the only obstacle and is with the current technology too expensive to supply all products with such chip. Critics of the system claim consumers aren't eager with the notion the manufacturer can exactly keep track where the product is being bought and where it ends up.

Organizations concerning privacy have their hands full. The development of modern technology goes nowadays faster than moral and ethical debates in the media can keep up with. Even the European Bank caused in January a scandal when a secret plan leaked out to install a 'smart chip' in the more expensive bills of the Euro. Tracing the bills could help to prevent counterfeiting and suspicious money transfers. However, it can also know what the consumer does with its money. And the commercial market will surely jump on that.

© 2002 Dennis Rodie

The Dutch version appeared in Kleintje Muurkrant nr. 367, April 26, 2002