Wisconsin bans compulsory RFID surgery
State legislative update:
The state of Wisconsin has passed legislation prohibiting RFID chips from being implanted under people's skin without their approval. Thank god! There has been so much unauthorized surgical implantation going on in the United States, someone finally put their foot down regarding RFID chips. It started with people being hijacked in the park, and having a third kidney transplanted without their knowledge or approval -- now RFID chips.
In all seriousness, wouldn't it already be illegal for employers to conduct surgery on their employees without consent? Whether it is an appendectomy or implanting of an RFID chip? If it was really an issue, wouldn't prohibiting unauthorized surgical implantation across the board make more sense? Why start and stop with RFID chips? I don't want my employers or the government sticking anything under my skin without my permission -- a tattoo, a tic tac or a cardiac stent.
More troubling is that the reputation of RFID technology is such that politicians believe they need to ban the implantation of RFID chips under people's skin -- and are applauded for it. The RFID industry needs a far more organized, focused, proactive strategy to promote the responsible uses and benefits of their technology, before someone else defines it for them as something inherently dangerous or suspect.
I know there have been industry efforts to educate the politicians -- and that's OK, but limited. You can have every politician in America completely educated about RFID, how it works, what it can and can't do. And those "educated" politicians will still seek to ban, regulate, restrict RFID use in any number of ways -- if they think they will get praise, attention, votes or campaign contributions from the public for doing it. That's the nature of politics.
Here's a question: Why Wisconsin? Here's an answer: Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. Thompson is on the Board of Directors of a company called VeriChip that is promoting rice-grain sized RFID chips that can be implanted under the skin to help track hospital patients and minimize medical mistakes. For those who don't know, Thompson is a Republican (also former Health and Human Services Secretary to President Bush) and the author of the legislation banning chip implantation is State Representative Marlin Schneider, a Democrat. At the end of the day, legislation is always about politics, politics, politics. That's part of the reason why an "education campaign" has limits -- RFID supporters must learn to play politics, not just "educate."
VeriChip also recently said on Fox News that their technology could and should be used for tracking and verifying the status of immigrants and temporary guest workers. (Thanks to the editor of Blawgreview for that link) In my opinion, those kinds of statements only serve to inflame the worst fears of people concerned about RFID -- especially when there is no context added. I don't know specifically what VeriChip has in mind, or how they would implement such a system (illegals won't be waiting at the border for chip implants, so that won't help; scanning workers for an authentication chip won't work, unless all US documented workers have chips --which will never happen) But in the absense of any coordinated effort by RFID providers and end-users to advance good public policy for RFID-use, these kinds of applications will grab the headlines, define RFID, and help drive anti-RFID activists and legislative proposals.
I welcome comments back from VeriChip clarifying their intent!
Other State legislative Activity affecting RFID? From Wikipedia:
California - SB1834
PURPOSE: Restrict the way businesses and libraries in California use RFID tags attached to consumer products or using an RFID reader that could be used to identify an individual.
Defeated by members of the California state assembly on June 25, 2005.
Massachusetts - HB 1447, SB 181
PURPOSE: Requires labels regarding use and purpose of RFID on consumer products; requires the ability to remove tags; and restricts info on tags to inventory and like purposes.
Maryland - HB 354
PURPOSE: Creates a task force to study privacy and other issues related to RFID and report on whether legislation is needed.
Missouri - SB 128
PURPOSE: Requires a conspicuous label on consumer packaging with RFID disclosing existence of the tag and that the tag can transmit a unique ID before and after purchase.
Nevada - AB 264
PURPOSE: Requires manufacturers, retailers and others to ensure placement of a label regarding existence of RFID on product prior to sale.
New Hampshire - HB 203
PURPOSE: Requires written or verbal notice of existence of a tracking device on any product prior to sale.
New Mexico - HB 215
PURPOSE: Requires businesses purveying tagged items to post notices on their premises and labels on the products; requires removal or deactivation of tag at point of sale.
Rhode Island - H 5929
PURPOSE: Prohibits state or local government from using RFID to track movement or identity of employees, students or clients or others as a condition of a benefit or service.
South Dakota - HB 1114
PURPOSE: Prohibits requiring a person to receive implant of an RFID chip.
Tennessee - HB 300, SB 699
PURPOSE: Requires conspicuous labeling of goods containing RFID disclosing existence of RFID and that it can transmit unique information.
Texas - HB 2953
PURPOSE: Prohibits school district from requiring student to use an RFID device for identification; requires school to provide alternative method to those who object to RFID.
Utah - HB 185
PURPOSE: Amends computer crime law to include RFID.
Laws against the implantation of RFID chips in American citizens is not enough.
There are too many different ways for the US Federal Government to illegally track Americans including the use of NSA supercomputers and satellites to target the bioelectromagnetic field around the human body, which with its own distinctive signature, can allow for the tracking of any American citzen 24 hours a day without the citizen's knowledge or consent.
This tracking system also allows NSA operatives to electronically access and maniupulate the brainwaves of the targeted American citizens; a situation in which their thoughts streams can be decoded into words by way of specialized software enabling the NSA to see a visual translation of what the targeted persons are thinking.
This is the most outrageous violation of human rights ever documented.
See John St. Clair Akwei's lawsuit against the NSA to learn more about how the NSA's spy/remote mind reading technology operates, as well how you are vulnerable to it.
Also see my Website to read about how any American citizen can be spied upon within the privacy of their own home for years on end, in what is the most egregious violation of the 4Th Amendment in United States history.
