posted 04-01-2002 01:49 AM               

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Posted: March 25, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern

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© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

The April edition of WND's acclaimed monthly magazine, Whistleblower, is a shocking and in-depth exploration of high-tech surveillance and tracking systems now being used on unsuspecting Americans, the rapid move toward human implantation of microchips, and a chilling look into the future.

Up until WorldNetDaily first publicized the "Digital Angel" two years ago, Applied Digital Solutions, the manufacturer of the sophisticated miniaturized tracking device, proudly touted its intention of promoting implantation of the chip – trackable via GPS satellites – in vast numbers of human beings. But in the face of waves of publicity and the resulting criticism from privacy advocates – as well from Christians concerned over the biblically prophesied "mark of the beast" – the Nasdaq-traded company removed all references to human implantation from its website. Its CEO claimed publicly there were "no plans" to make the technology implantable, but rather for the user to "wear" the device outside his body on a wristwatch.

Then came Sept. 11, and the resulting urgent national drive to increase America's homeland security. And in this new climate of fear, in which many Americans favor security over privacy, the company did an about-face and re-introduced implantation with an aggressive and ongoing media campaign.

However, that's just the beginning. The post-9-11 homeland-security environment has also brought about a major spike in surveillance and tracking technologies in every imaginable – and unimaginable – realm of life.

In this groundbreaking issue, Whistleblower explores not only the latest assaults on citizens' privacy, but highlights some of the truly alarming technologies and applications now on the drawing board. Some of the contents include:

*How Sept. 11 ushered in the era of implanted chips.

*A survey of religious leaders on whether they think VeriChip and Digital Angel represent the biblical "mark of the beast."

*An in-depth report by Michael Hyatt, author of "Invasion of Privacy: How to protect yourself in the digital age."

*High-tech surveillance of unsuspecting supermarket shoppers becoming more widespread.

*Fantastic new generation of robots, modeled after insects, lizards and snakes, being designed for urban surveillance and weapons delivery, as well as the development of microscopic robots through nanotechnology

*"Air Force 2025:" The Air Force's futuristic "wish list" of technologies that can help it win future wars. Chapter 4 makes a strong case for – you guessed it – "the implanted microscopic brain chip."

But science fiction-type technologies aimed at achieving direct neural interfacing between computers and the human brain for "the edge" on the battlefield are only the "chip" of the iceberg. Companies and major university artificial intelligence labs, such as M.I.T., are hard at work attempting to create bionic humans – part man, part machine. Brain chips that could one day "back up" the memory of an Alzheimer's patient, or speed up the brain's computing speed by a thousand- or a million-fold, or enable its recipient to speak a foreign language instantaneously, are envisioned and eagerly anticipated.

Beyond even that, on this guided tour of America's techno-future, Whistleblower arrives at the ultimate project over which many Ph.D. brains are current laboring: Immortality. The development of replaceable body parts (including brain "cells"), coupled with virtual omniscience (direct neural interfacing between the human brain and all the information in the world, via the Internet), is the final prize of artificial intelligence experts on some of today's university campuses.

"This issue of Whistleblower is not about the distant, implausible world of fantasy, but the current research and development projects of the U.S. Defense Department, universities and private companies," said WND Vice President and Managing Editor David Kupelian. "If what we've reported on in this issue of Whistleblower sounds strangely familiar to readers, it's because it mirrors many of the most fantastic science-fiction themes of film and literature."

posted 04-04-2002 09:29 PM               

Company to Sell ID-Only Computer Chip Implant
Apr 4, 2002 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - A company plans to begin selling a computer ID chip that can be embedded beneath people's skin, now that the Food and Drug Administration has said it will not regulate the implant as long as it contains no medical data.

Applied Digital Solutions Inc. designed the VeriChip - about the size of a grain of rice - to hold information that could be read with special electronic scanners. The company has touted the chip as a potential way to hold a person's medical records or security codes.

Applied Digital had held off sales pending discussions with the FDA of whether an implanted chip would be considered a medical device. If the chip solely provides identification, it needs no FDA clearance, the agency confirmed Thursday - advice officials have long given others developing ID for tracking children, prisoners or workers with top-security clearances.

But, "if they put medical records in, we would be concerned about the use," said the FDA's medical device chief, Dr. David Feigal, who made clear that the agency could step in at that point.

If someone is unconscious in an emergency room and implanted medical records are outdated, that could be more dangerous than if doctors had no information, he said. Feigal urged companies considering such health-related implants to consult with the FDA.

For now, the VeriChip will bear only an identification number, said David Hughes of Technology Sourcing International, a consulting firm helping Applied Digital in its discussions with the FDA. But that ID code could be cross-referenced with a database to detail any kind of information.
The company said production would begin immediately.

VeriChip emits a radio signal and has been derided by some for its "Big Brother" implications. Applied Digital has said it could prove invaluable in emergency situations when someone is either unconscious or cannot otherwise give information.

posted 04-04-2002 09:42 PM               

Thursday, 4 April, 2002, 20:37 GMT 21:37 UK

US accepts 'Big Brother' chip implant

A company in the US has been given the go-ahead to implant a chip that would contain both personal and medical information.
But it seems the permission has been given indirectly.

The US Food and Drug Administration has indicated that it does not consider the chip, made by Applied Digital Solutions (ADS), a medical device, and as a consequence it does not feel it falls under its jurisdiction, according to the company.

The chip, called VeriChip, has been criticised by anti-intrusion campaigners for its 'Big Brother' capabilities.

Emergency help

Applied Digital Solutions have hit back, insisting that the radio signals emitted from the rice grain-sized chip could benefit patients in emergency situations, especially when they are unconscious or otherwise unable to inform medics about known conditions.

"VeriChip is a ready source of data about the patient's name and condition as well as the medical device's original components, required settings and other essential parameters," the company said.

"Future applications may include full medical record archival/retrieval for emergency medical care."

"With VeriChip, Applied Digital has taken another significant step in developing leading-edge personal security technologies for a rapidly evolving marketplace," said chairman and chief executive Richard Sullivan.

Commercial potential

The company hopes to make money from the chip by selling it for about $200 (£140).

A scanner which would be able to decipher the information contained in the chip would cost between $1,000 and $3,000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1911000/1911911.stm

posted 04-04-2002 09:52 PM               

April 04, 2002 at 19:45:17 PST

Study: Pellets May Prevent Injury
DALLAS (AP) - Implanting tiny pellets of medicine into the brain may prevent a potentially dangerous complication that often affects victims of a certain type of stroke.

Patients who undergo surgery to repair a ruptured blood vessel after a kind of stroke called a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or SAH, often develop a vasospasm, in which arteries in the head shrink, starving the brain of blood. A vasospasm is most likely to cause brain damage but can sometimes be deadly.

In a study of 20 SAH patients, Japanese researchers inserted two to 10 pellets the size of a grain of rice next to arteries they suspected would develop vasospasms. The pellets contained nicardipine, a type of medicine called a calcium channel blocker often used to treat high blood pressure.

In every case, arteries next to the pellets developed no vasospasms.

However, six patients developed a mild form of vasospasms in arteries farther away from where the pellets were inserted. One patient had mild contractions, another had vasospasms severe enough to cause disability.

Still, the frequency and severity of the vasospasms were far milder than without treatment, said lead author Dr. Hidetoshi Kasuya of the Tokyo Women's Medical University. No side effects were observed, he added.

The findings were reported in Thursday's issue of the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

Dr. Gregory Del Zoppo, associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute in La Joya, Calif., said oral calcium channel blockers are the conventional treatment for vasospasms, but they do not work well in all cases. Doctors are interested in alternatives, he said.

"I think at first blush it's a rather novel and clever way to increase the local concentration of calcium channel blockers," Del Zoppo said of the pellets.

SAH strokes affect some 28,000 North Americans annually, a surgery is required to patch the ruptured blood vessel. Between 50 percent and 70 percent of such patients develop vasospasms.

Kasuya said while scientists do not know what causes vasospasms, conventional treatment methods are not especially effective or are complicated and hazardous.

He said he now plans to conduct more research and work with a drug company interested in bringing the idea to market.

posted 04-12-2002 09:33 PM               

Companies are allowed to market computer ID chips which can be embedded under a person's skin in the US, after the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the technology its qualified approval.

The FDA said yesterday it would not block use of such devices as long as they contain no medical data - paving the way for the sale of devices such as the VeriChip, from Applied Digital Solutions.

VeriChip, an implantable, radio frequency identification biochip slightly larger than the size of a grain of rice, can be scanned (using equipment expected to cost between $1,000 and $3,000) to give a unique ID number. Its use is touted for security and emergency, as well as for medical applications. In South America, the chip has been bundled with a GPS-unit and sold to potential kidnap victims, Wired reports.

ADS intends to sell the chip for about $200, with an annual service charge of $40 for maintaining a user database.

In medicine (the main market), the idea is that if a patient is unconscious or otherwise unable to tell doctors about medical conditions then doctors can still find out this information from the ID contained on the VeriChip. This number is cross-referenced with hospital databases to give a patient's medical records.

It seems little more convenient than if a person is say, diabetic or has a rare blood group, or has an allergy, and carries this information by an unbreakable bracelet around their wrist.

Judging from its web site, Applied Digital Solutions is a little more ambitious: it appears to wants to store medical on the chip. However the FDA has drawn the line on anything more than the storage of basic ID data on the chip.

"If they put medical records in, we would be concerned about the use," the FDA's medical device chief, Dr. David Feigal, told AP.

The FDA would "step in" in such cases, he said. The FDA is concerned that medical data on the chip may be out of date.

But there's also the security issue to address - how can the designers ensure that their chip is tamper-proof?

And let's not forget the civil liberties implications.

posted 04-13-2002 01:43 PM               

Radio-frequency identification chips, which have found a home in applications ranging from toll road passes to smart retail shelves, may be close to taking up residence in the human body.

A Florida-based company has introduced a passive RFID chip that is compatible with human tissue, and the developer is proposing the chip for use on implantable pacemakers, defibrillators and artificial joints. The company, Applied Digital Solutions (Palm Beach, Fla.), also said that the chip could be injected through a syringe and used as a sort of "human bar code" in security applications.

Called the VeriChip, the device could open up a broad new segment for the $900 million-a-year RFID business, especially if society embraces the idea of using microchips for human identification. Applied Digital executives ultimately believe that the worldwide market for such implantable chips could reach $70 billion per year.

"The human market for this technology could be huge," said Keith Bolton, senior vice president of technology development at the company. Futurists agree that the idea of using microchips inside the body could ultimately represent a large market opportunity, but they doubt whether this initial effort will have a significant effect on the RFID market. "Are we going to see chips embedded in the human body? You bet we are," said Paul Saffo, a director of The Institute for the Future (Menlo Park, Calif.). "But it isn't going to happen overnight."

Pacemaker helper
Still, Applied Digital Solutions' executives are preparing to sell between $2.5 million and $5 million worth of VeriChips in 2002. The company initially plans to sell the chips in South America and Europe for use with pacemakers and defibrillators. In that application, it could be attached to the outside of the heart device or implanted nearby in the body. Doing so would enable medical personnel to identify and monitor a patient's implanted devices merely by running a handheld scanner over the patient's chest.

"If you're a pacemaker user and you're in an accident and in shock, an ambulance attendant could scan the body and retrieve information about the device," Bolton said. "The chip could provide information about the [pacemaker's] settings, who its manufacturer is and whether you have any medical allergies." The company said it is working with makers of implantable pacemakers and defibrillators to incorporate the chip during the equipment-manufacturing process.

Applied Digital Solutions is awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and does not expect to sell the chips in the United States until that approval is granted. The company's engineers said they expect approval later this year. The announcement of the chip's availability created a media stir, however — not because of its potential use with pacemakers but because of its science-fiction-like potential application in human identification systems. Because the microchip and its antenna measure just 11.1 x 2.1 mm, Applied Digital Solutions said the assembly can be injected through a syringe and implanted in various locations within the body.

The tube-shaped VeriChip includes a memory that holds 128 characters of information, an electromagnetic coil for transmitting data and a tuning capacitor, all encapsulated within a silicone-and-glass enclosure. The passive RF unit, which operates at 125 kHz, is activated by moving a company-designed scanner within about a foot of the chip. Doing so excites the coil and "wakes up" the chip, enabling it to transmit data. The chips are said to be similar to those that are already implanted in about a million dogs and cats nationwide to enable pet owners to identify and reclaim animals that have been temporarily lost.

Applied Digital Solutions, which has made the pet-tracking chips for several years, says that the human chips differ mainly in the biocompatible coating that's used to keep the body from rejecting the implanted chip. The VeriChip is believed to be the first such chip designed for human identification.

Inspired by Sept. 11
In September, Applied Digital Solutions implanted its first human chip when a New Jersey surgeon, Richard Seelig, injected two of the chips into himself. He placed one chip in his left forearm and the other near the artificial hip in his right leg. "He was motivated after he saw firefighters at the World Trade Center in September writing their Social Security numbers on their forearms with Magic Markers," Bolton said. "He thought that there had to be a more sophisticated way of doing an identification."

Applied Digital said Seelig, who serves as a medical consultant to the company, has now had the chips implanted in him for three months with no signs of rejection or infection. Ordinarily, the company said, the chips would be implanted in a doctor's office under local anesthesia. Applied Digital's executives said the ability to inject the chips opens up a variety of RFID applications in high-security situations, as well other types of human identification systems. The chips, they said, could be implanted in young children or in adults with Alzheimer's disease, to help officials identify people who can't identify themselves. But the company is backing away from involuntary identification applications, such the tracking of prisoners or parolees. "We are advocating that this technology be totally voluntary," Bolton said.

Whether the technology will boost the market for RFID chips remains uncertain. Industry analysts had assumed that by now RFID would constitute a far larger market than its current, $900 million annual tally. A consortium of major manufacturers has sought to push the technology as a replacement for bar codes in everyday products ranging from cereal boxes to shaving cream cans, but the cost hasn't dropped low enough to make that feasible.

More recently, a group led by the European Central Bank began work on embedding RFID chips in the euro bank note, but the chip category has yet to find its killer app. Applied Digital nonetheless has high hopes for its RFID technology. The publicly held company's stock did not fare well last year, plummeting from a high of $3 a share on Feb. 7 to 11 cents per share on Sept. 17. But its per-share stock price jumped to 50 cents from 38 cents after the company announced the VeriChip.

Eventual adoption
Analysts expressed confidence that the concept would eventually be adopted but were skeptical about its immediate future. "For this to work, you are going to need a standard that everyone agrees to," said Saffo of The Institute for the Future. "Then you have to convince people to buy reading devices that may be fairly costly."

Applied Digital's engineers would not say how much the chips or handheld readers might cost. The company's reader is a proprietary unit that is required for use with the VeriChip. Some further suggested that the chip might be too large for easy adoption. Veterinarians who have implanted the chips in dogs and cats say that the techniques used in animals are unlikely to be embraced by humans. "The needle is huge," said Dean Christopoulos, a veterinarian in Des Plaines, Ill. "It's almost as thick as your pinky." Some engineers suggested the technology might ultimately be scaled down, making the chip's acceptance more likely.

At Alien Technology Corp. (Morgan Hill, Calif.), engineers have already discussed using that company's ultrasmall RFID chips in human applications. Alien, which uses a process known as fluidic self-assembly to create chips measuring 350 x 350 microns, has demonstrated its 900-MHz technology on everyday products such as soap and shampoo bottles. The coded information can be detected and read across distances measuring almost 3 feet. "There are companies making RFID tags that are much smaller than a couple of millimeters," said Andy Holman, director of business development for Alien Technology.

posted 05-01-2002 06:09 PM               

Bill would push driver's license with chip
By Dee Ann Divis
UPI Science and Technology Editor
From the Science & Technology Desk
Published 5/1/2002 0:27 AM

WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- Legislation to standardize state-issued driver's licenses across the United States, and to mandate that those licenses carry a computer chip and incorporate some kind of unique identifier such as a fingerprint, will be introduced in Congress on Wednesday.

The Driver's License Modernization Act of 2002, sponsored by Reps. Jim Moran, D-Va., and Tom Davis, R-Va., also directs that the chip be capable of accepting software for other applications, including those of private companies.

The objective of the legislation is to prevent identity fraud and enhance national security by making driver's licenses a better way to establish identity. The use of a fingerprint, for example, would make it harder for someone to steal and use the card.

The bill would also mandate the establishment of standards for documents accepted by states to better establish the identity of the person applying for a driver's license or non-driver ID card.

"The intent of this legislation is to correct flaws in the driver's license standard that states currently have," Moran's spokesman, Dan Drummond, told United Press International.

"Right now there are inconsistent requirements between the states for initial identity verification. There's also insufficient verification of identity documents that people present when they go to get a license."

The bill would also earmark $315 million in federal funds to help pay for the transition to the new licenses and to set up links between state computer systems. Linking the computers is necessary, proponents say, so that states can check if the person applying for a driver's license was denied a license in another state.

These provisions in the bill track closely with a proposal by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, which has long supported standardized licenses and has been pushing to set criteria for "breeder" documents like birth certificates and to link state computer systems.

The total cost of the links and other enhancements could be substantial. In 1997 the Social Security Administration published a report saying that the cost to issue an enhanced Social Security card, an idea similar in many ways to the enhanced driver's licenses, would range from $3.8 million to $9.2 billion, depending on the type of card.

Issuing a Social Security card with a computer chip and a biometric identifier to 277 million people was estimated to cost $7.3 billion, a figure deemed "reasonable" by the General Accounting Office in 1998.

The AAMVA proposal would cover some 250 million people, including Canadians, in the system.

One aspect of the new bill that may not mesh well with AAMVA's vision, however, is the use of the driver's license for other than driver identification.

Jay Maxwell, AAMVA executive director, told UPI at a mid-April conference, that dual-use cards can create a problem with who owns the license and its use for driving enforcement.

What would happen, said Maxwell if a policeman had to take your driver's license and it was also your ATM and credit card?

Such a problem would only impact the worst drivers, stressed Shane Ham, a senior policy analyst at the Washington-based Progressive Policy Institute, who said that this was a very small number of users. He added that there might be other ways around the problem.

"In theory the cards could also be structured in such a way that revoking your driving privileges is just a change that is downloaded onto the chip itself without actually yanking the card back," said Ham.

He also stressed that use of the enhanced driver's license for private-sector services is strictly voluntary.

"It would be completely optional if the card holder wanted to put something else on their driver's license," said Ham. "As far as anyone's concerned, you could pretend that the chip was not there."

"If the purpose of this card is domestic security or it is national security or it is to screen terrorists, then there is no reason for it to be designed from the beginning to be interoperable with private sector entities," pointed out Lee Tien, senior staff attorney with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"The real thrust of the private-sector interoperability is so that the ID card or driver's license will be even more useful to commercial entities in terms of tracking consumers, doing consumer profiling, telemarketing -- all those kinds of things that people currently consider to be an invasion of privacy," Tien said.

The density of information on the cards makes them a target, a "honey pot" for people trying to steal data, said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology. Supposedly secure chips on smart cards have already been hacked, said Schwartz.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=30042002-113901-6626r

posted 05-07-2002 06:04 PM            

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Implantable-chip company attacks WND
Digital Angel accusations come as Whistleblower exposι is published

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Posted: April 2, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Editor's note: The April issue of WND's monthly print magazine, Whistleblower, takes an in-depth look at implanted chips, futuristic surveillance technologies and the virtual end to privacy. One of the main companies profiled in that issue is the subject of this report.
By Sherrie Gossett
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

The media-relations consultant for Applied Digital Solutions and its subsidiary, Digital Angel.net, Inc., has accused WorldNetDaily of intentionally publishing false statements about the company and its products.

In e-mail communications to WorldNetDaily, public relations representative Matthew Cossolotto charges, "Your reporters always seem to get the story wrong … perhaps because they never bother to check on the facts before going to press," even suggesting that WND reporters "intend on getting it wrong to sensationalize the story."

Referring to the most recent of WND's stories on implanted biochips, "Digital Angel lands in China," published March 28, Cossolotto wrote to WND Editor Joseph Farah that the story contained information that was "simply incorrect and [reporter Sherrie] Gossett (and WND) must be aware it's completely false."

However, all quotes by ADS executives and partners that appeared in the article, as well as all business information pertaining to the company's business ties to China, were taken directly from two ADS press releases.

The press releases were "Digital Angel corporation forms joint venture to manufacture, market and distribute Digital Angel product in Northeast industrial region of China," dated Aug. 29, 2001, and "Applied Digital Solutions opens research and development/engineering facility in Shen Zhen," dated Jan. 11, 2002.

Ironically, despite Cossolotto's accusatory e-mails, Applied Digital Solutions' website posted the China article in its "Interviews and Articles" section of recommended reading, where investors can glean key information about the company from media coverage.

Cossolotto singled out the following passage in the China article as allegedly being false: "As WorldNetDaily first reported, Digital Angel is a sophisticated, miniaturized tracking device intended by its manufacturer for subdermal implantation in large numbers of human beings."

'Human implantation'?

Since Sept. 11, the company has aggressively marketed a syringe-injectable biochip, the size of a grain of rice, called VeriChip. However, Digital Angel, a more complex device – that the company says is trackable via Global Position System – is currently being promoted in its externally "wearable" form only. And while ADS freely and enthusiastically promotes the implantable VeriChip – which can be read by a scanner from a few feet away – it apparently now refuses to admit publicly that the company fully intends, as it once freely stated in its promotional materials and website, that the sophisticated Digital Angel tracking chip one day will be implanted in human beings.

And judging by the $100 billion worldwide market the company has said it envisions for Digital Angel, it is contemplating implantation in large numbers of human beings.

Indeed, the central controversy that has plagued Digital Angel is the fact that, although human implantation and widespread use were key elements of its strategic marketing plan from early on, the company apparently did not anticipate the level of criticism it would receive from civil-liberties and Christian groups.

The resulting protests made strange bedfellows of the ACLU, who called the implantable chip "an outrage," the Black Radical Congress, which called it "a fascist technology," Christians, for whom it was disturbingly close to the biblical "mark of the beast" foretold in the book of Revelation, and privacy advocates.

Thus, two weeks prior to the unveiling of the first prototype before potential investors and Wall St. analysts – and in the wake of protests over proposed human implantation – the company quickly removed all information on its website that referred to development of the chips for human implantation. The deleted information included a reference to "future versions" of the chip for human implantation, and the need to wait for "FDA approval." Company executives were directed to stop using the phrase "cashless society" and to use the euphemism "tamper-proof" instead of "implanted."

Only since 9/11 and the nation's newfound urgency over security and safety have ADS executives again begun to openly use the term "cashless society" and "human implantation."

So, despite protestations from Applied Digital Solutions and DigitalAngel.net, Inc., WorldNetDaily has consistently reported that, although Digital Angel, in its "current form," is being marketed as a wristwatch/pager combination, the chip was intended and developed for human implantation. Indeed, ADS company documents clearly confirm this:

ADS press release, Dec. 15, 1999: "ADS Acquires the rights to World's First Digital Device – Implantable in Humans – With Applications In E-Business To Business Security, Health Care And Criminal Justice.
"… Inserted just under the skin … miniature Digital Angel has multi-billion dollar market potential. … The implantable transceiver sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by GPS. … When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles. …We plan to focus our initial development efforts on the growing field of e-commerce security and user ID verification. … The company expects to create a working prototype by the end of next year."

Digital Angel Web page, dated Oct. 26, 2000 (since removed from the Web), referring to the partnership with Princeton University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology: "This relationship has helped implement an accelerated schedule for delivering a working prototype," the site said. The scientists had worked on "reception of GPS satellite signals, information transmission to ground stations, antenna size" and "body tissue absorption," the latter being a clear reference to development of the chip for implantation.

Digital Angel web page, dated May 20, 2000, now preserved in the Internet Archive "Wayback Machine." "The Digital Angel transceiver can be implanted just under the skin or hidden inconspicuously on or within valuable personal belongings. … When implanted within the human body, the transceiver is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles."
'See you at the show'

In an e-mail exchange with Dr. Peter Zhou, president of Digital Angel.net, dated Oct, 27, 2000, this reporter wrote: "I had another question re: e-commerce applications. If I understand correctly, your system would probably be more reliable than conventional computer access systems, such as passwords and so on, because these systems can be hacked into. The security mechanisms currently in usage reside within the machine, rather than the person. … So your system would probably negate the need for utilizing multiple security techniques. … Is it possible that Digital Angel, in this application, could simplify this issue by becoming a universal and superior standard in computer access security? … Any thoughts on this?"

Zhou responded by e-mail: "You understand and describe the concept very well. See you at the show!"

At the "show" – a private, closed unveiling of the Digital Angel prototype in New York City Oct. 30, 2000, Sullivan addressed the implantation controversy in his speech.

"And let me be very clear on one important point," said the CEO. "The potential marketplace I'm talking about is for an attachable device … something worn on the outside … close to the skin." Despite the fact that seven days earlier, his website had displayed extensive information about development of the chip for human implantation, and that McKinsey & Co. consultants had prepared a marketing projection for a whopping $70 billion market in the U.S., Sullivan contended, "We're not planning on or even considering any other application at this time. Only external uses! All of our energy … all of our focus … all of our effort is in this direction. Period. Any other approach or suggestion is purely hypothetical speculation at this time."

The key phrase, of course, was "at this time."

Editor's note: Reporter Sherrie Gossett attended the New York City unveiling, and interviewed Chief Scientist Dr. Peter Zhou, Chief Technology Officer Dr. Keith Bolton, and CEO Richard Sullivan in New York City as well as over the phone.

During an interview the morning after the event, Oct. 31, 2000 at 10:40 a.m., in his suite at the New York Palace Hotel, Sullivan clarified his reference to "hypothetical speculation." With Cossolotto present, the CEO said, "Some may have speculated that [human implantation], but that's not the case."

But was human implantation ever planned by ADS, and if so, at what point did they change their mind and course?

Sullivan answered: "That was never the business intention of Applied Digital Solutions."

'Large numbers of human beings'

As for the issue of the implantable chips being intended for use in "large numbers of human beings," the company has recommended and promoted their products' use in the following applications:

Medical monitoring, tracking of Alzheimer's victims and autistic persons, heart patients, persons with heart regulating devices, medical implants, or prosthetic devices

Law enforcement, including use in prisoners, parolees, persons under house arrest and individuals in witness-protection programs

E-commerce security/user verification: "Requiring this ID for logon would prevent unauthorized access"

Per the Palm Beach Post, ADS is pushing for the chip to be implanted in all foreigners entering the country, claiming it could replace green cards

Airline workers, nuclear power plant workers and employees of other "sensitive industries"

Implantation in children and the elderly

Gun control – "prevention of unauthorized use of firearms"

Potential kidnapping victims, such as diplomats and top corporate executives

Soldiers

Wilderness hikers
In addition, ADS has posted in the "Other Reports Of Interest" section of its website, an article entitled "The National ID Card that isn't, yet" – despite previous public statements that the company is not looking for its chips to be incorporated into a national ID system.

The list is so long and vast, it easily comprises millions of people. In fact, Sullivan said he expects Digital Angel to enhance "the quality of life for millions of people" in a Dec. 15, 1999 ADS press release.

While WND has covered ADS's implantable chip projects more comprehensively and for longer than virtually any other media organization, other press outlets certainly have reported that the Digital Angel chip and the VeriChip were designed for human implantation, and for use in large numbers of people.

For instance, CNN.com's "Tiny human-borne monitoring device sparks privacy fears" (Dec. 20, 1999, by Richard Stenger), referring to Digital Angel, described "a miniature digital monitoring device that can be implanted in people. … Electronic freedom activists are concerned about exploitation of the technology, which would use global positioning system (GPS) technology to track implantees … [It] would be powered by muscle movements of implantees. The company plans to complete a working prototype by the end of 2000. Planted inconspicuously just under the skin, the implantable transceiver sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by GPS technology. …. 'We believe its potential for enhancing the quality of life for millions is virtually limitless,' said ADS Chairman and CEO Richard Sullivan in a statement. … ADS said the technology could 'tap into a vast global market.'"

"It seems," said David Kupelian, vice president and managing editor of WND and Whistleblower magazine, "that Mr. Cossolotto and the Digital Angel folks are intent on denying that they ever intended for Digital Angel to be implanted. Sorry, but that's like denying that the sky is blue. Their own written and spoken record proves conclusively that they have advocated widespread human chip implantation – including with Digital Angel, which would mean the ultimate in worldwide surveillance – for a long time. All their denials do is make people wonder what they're hiding."

The groundbreaking April issue of WND's monthly magazine, Whistleblower – titled "BRAVE NEW WORLD: Welcome to the era of implanted chips, universal surveillance, man-and-machine hybrids and the end to your privacy – is available at WND's online store, ShopNetDaily.

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posted 05-08-2002 02:13 PM            

With bionic eye, subjects see light for first time in years

By Kathleen Fackelmann
USA TODAY

Six blind or near-blind people can now see light and in some cases pick out shapes and recognize faces after having an artificial retina inserted into their eyes, according to findings released today by the co-inventor of the device.

The findings raise hopes that the bionic eye may restore some sight for the estimated 10 million Americans afflicted with blinding eye diseases.

Alan Chow, an ophthalmologist who helped invent the Artificial Silicon Retina, and his colleagues tucked the computer retinas into a slit they made in the eyes of six people blinded by retinitis pigmentosa, a rare progressive degeneration of the retina.

Solar cells in the device's microchip are supposed to replace the function of the retina's light-sensing cells that have been damaged by disease.

(rest of the article at http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020508/4092807s.htm )

Family chipper about its microchip implants

By Leslie Jacobs

On Friday, my family will become the first in history to ''get chipped'' -- that is to say, my husband, our son and I will each have a tiny microchip inserted just under the skin near our shoulders.

Ever since our desire to get chipped was first reported, we've found ourselves at the center of a media whirlwind. Not all of the coverage has been positive. Because we want our medical and other information to be accessible in an emergency, we've been likened to Star Trek cyborgs and fussed over by those worried we're opening the door for Big Brother and an invasion of privacy.

(rest of the article at http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020508/4092823s.htm )

posted 05-08-2002 04:25 PM            

But a more cost-effective approach would be to put the CCD (charge-coupled device) camera array in one nostril or implanted into a false incisor. Memory and post-processing processors, along with a milliwatt-power short-range transmitter, could be hidden in a sinus cavity.

posted 05-08-2002 04:39 PM               

quote:

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Solar cells in the device's microchip are supposed to replace the function of the retina's light-sensing cells that have been damaged by disease.

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posted 05-08-2002 06:38 PM               

quote:

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First, this is a completely voluntary decision, like installing a home-security system. Nobody's forcing us to use the chip.

The database will only contain information that we want to be made available, and we will control who has access to that information and under what circumstances. In fact, we think that when the VeriChip speaks for us, we are exercising our right to free speech.

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Yeah Right!

BTW Dan, congratulations on your promotion.

posted 05-08-2002 07:03 PM            

quote:

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USA Today, the intellectual's newspaper of choice.

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You got anything to back that up Duncan or was this more undergirding of sarcasm... sorry, but sometimes my thermostat on your posts is off.

posted 05-08-2002 10:38 PM               

I think that the military has already looked into this technology and we are either seeing technology that they rejected or technology that they already have. Or perhaps they might even have something better. - I did read somewhere about the military wanting to create cyborg-type soldiers. - I'll have to see if I can find that article.

posted 05-09-2002 06:53 PM               

Technology: Device implanted under skin will provide identification and medical information.

By DAVID STREITFELD
Times Staff Writer

May 9 2002

Eight people will be injected with silicon chips Friday, making them scannable just like a jar of peanut butter in the supermarket checkout line.

The miniature devices, about the size of a grain of rice, were developed by a Florida company. They will be targeted to families of Alzheimer's patients--one of the fastest growing groups in American society--as well as others who have complicated medical histories.

"It's safety precaution," explained Nate Isaacson. The retired building contractor will enter his Fort Lauderdale doctor's office Friday as an 83-year-old with Alzheimer's.

He'll leave it a cyborg, a man who is also a little bit of a computer.

The chip will be put in Isaacson's upper back, effectively invisible unless a hand-held scanner is waved over it. The scanner uses a radio frequency to energize the dormant chip, which then transmits a signal containing an identification number. Information about Isaacson is cross-referenced under that number in a central computer registry.

Emergency room personnel, for instance, could find out who Isaacson is and where he lives. They'd know that he is prone to forgetfulness, that has a pacemaker and is allergic to penicillin.

"You never know what's going to happen when you go out the door," said Isaacson's wife, Micki. "Should something happen, he's never going to remember those things."

Applied Digital Solutions Inc., the maker of what it calls the VeriChip, says that it will soon have a prototype of a much more complex device, one that is able to receive GPS satellite signals and transmit a person's location.

It's a prospect deeply unsettling to privacy advocates, no matter how voluntary the process may initially appear.

"Who gets to decide who gets chipped?" asked Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Parents will decide that their kids should be implanted, or maybe their own aging parents. It's an easier way to manage someone, like putting a leash on a pet."

Applied Digital, which says it has a waiting list of 4,000 to 5,000 people who want a VeriChip, plans to operate a "chipmobile" that visits Florida senior citizen's centers. An estimated 4 million people nationally have Alzheimer's, with more than 10% of them in Florida.

Not Just for Those With Alzheimer's

Jeffrey and Leslie Jacobs and their teenage son Derek, whose "chipping" will be a national media event, don't have problems with dementia. The Boca Raton, Fla., family has a mixture of ailments and interests: Jeffrey has been treated for Hodgkin's disease and suffers from other conditions for which he takes 16 medications, while Derek is allergic to certain antibiotics. Mostly, though, he's a computer buff who considers the procedure nifty. As for Leslie, she's merely hoping to feel more secure in an insecure world.

A third group readying themselves for the simple outpatient procedure Friday are executives of Applied Digital, a publicly traded company based in Palm Beach. Even their publicist is doing it.

Getting chipped is easy. Making it more useful than a piece of body art will be harder.

"There are a lot of practical issues here, as well as ethical and privacy issues," said Mark Pafford, associate executive director of the Alzheimer's Assn.'s Southeast Florida chapter. "If it were me, I would use something tried and proven, like a ID bracelet or a necklace that has an 800 number. This VeriChip seems like it would inhibit someone being returned home in a timely fashion. Who knows how to look under someone's skin?"

Applied Digital says nearly all the major hospitals in the West Palm Beach area will be equipped with the scanners. Yet St. Mary's Medical Center, a major trauma center approached at random by a reporter, said no one had contacted that hospital.

Isaacson's family says he has a bracelet. He also has a wallet with an ID.

"The VeriChip is more of a 'God forbid,'" said Sherry Gottlieb, Isaacson's daughter. "You feel you have to have it, but hope you never need it."

Applied Digital is charging $200 for a chip, plus a $10 monthly fee to store the information. As the first patients, Isaacson and the Jacobses are getting their VeriChips for free, but that's the only financial consideration they are receiving.

Isaacson's doctor, while agreeing to perform the insertion, has some qualms about it. He consented to be interviewed but asked that his name not be revealed until Friday. While protests against the VeriChip have been minimal, neither the doctor nor Applied Digital are eager to see demonstrations. A few religious groups say the chips are "the mark of the Beast" referred to in the Bible.

"I think this is going to be the cutting edge of the future, because quick information saves lives," Isaacson's doctor said. "I get calls 24 hours a day informing me that a patient has had a stroke or a heart attack and is in the hospital. I have to go to my office, get the chart, and then go to the hospital. All that takes time, while the patient is being treated with limited information."

And yet this family practitioner doesn't see himself chipping any youthful patients. While he believes the procedure is safe and the chip can always be removed, he's worried about long-term liability. "You do something to a young person, you may be responsible for years afterwards. He may be carrying this chip for 70 or 80 years."

Long before then--by the end of the year, in fact--the next generation of devices will be tested.

An embedded chip with GPS capabilities would be slightly larger than a quarter and require actual surgery to implant. Unlike the VeriChip, it also would require Food and Drug Administration approval. That will slow down its U.S. introduction.

"We believe we have solved the battery issue, which leaves the question of an antenna that can transmit through skin tissue," said Keith Bolton, Applied Digital's chief scientist. The devices will be powered by lithium ion batteries, which can be charged remotely from outside the body.

Interest in Device in Brazil and Mexico

Applied Digital says it has already received considerable interest in the VeriChip from both commercial and government sources in Brazil and Mexico, and expects the embedded system to be big wherever there is a big threat of kidnapping.

The prospect of such sales is no doubt one reason Applied Digital stock, which traded as low as 11 cents in the last year, recently quadrupled to about $2.

Corporate insiders were sellers of the stock before the recent run-up, which might indicate a lack of faith in the company's viability.

The stock fell 6 cents to $2.01 on Wednesday on Nasdaq.

posted 05-09-2002 07:15 PM            

Sarcasm, absolutely. Have you noticed that USA Today's news-stands all look like TV's? That isn't a coincidence, in my opinion.

posted 05-09-2002 08:47 PM               

Now you two be nice on my thread.

posted 05-10-2002 08:11 PM               

Friday, May 10, 2002

Family Gets Computer Chips Implant

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) - A Florida family on Friday became the first to be implanted with computer chips that researchers hope will someday become an easy way to provide emergency room staffers with patients' medical information.

Jeff and Leslie Jacobs, along with their 14-year-old son, Derek, had the tiny chips implanted in their arms. Each chip is about the size of a grain of rice, and insertion takes about a minute under local anesthesia.

The chips, called the VeriChip, were designed by Palm Beach-based Applied Digital Solutions Inc. They are similar to chips implanted in pets to identify them if they are lost.

The family wanted the implants in case of future medical emergencies.

``We're doing this as a security for us, because we've worked so hard to save my husband's life,'' said Leslie Jacobs, 46.

Her 48-year-old husband has suffered through cancer, a car crash, a degenerative spinal condition, chronic eye disease and abdominal operations. His injuries have forced him to quit his dental practice.

``It's been really easy and I feel a lot better that I have it,'' he said after the implant.

The chips used by the Jacobs family contain only telephone numbers and information about previous medications. The data can be read by a hand-held computer and printed out.

The Food and Drug Administration said in April that it would not regulate the implant as long as it contains no medical data. Company officials said they were free to proceed because the implant contains identification numbers that correspond to personal medical information in a separate database.

The FDA did not consider the implant to be a medical device, company officials said. An FDA spokeswoman in Miami did not immediately return a phone call. The FDA had said regulation would be needed if medical records were stored to guard against storage of outdated records.

Company officials hope to eventually include more extensive information. The company says it would be particularly valuable for those who suffer from Alzheimer's disease or others with difficulty providing medical information on their own.

VeriChip is expected to sell for about $200. A scanner used to read information contained in the chip would cost between $1,000 and $3,000.

The chip, which could also be used as a security tool, has stirred debate over its potential use as a ``Big Brother'' device to track people or invade the privacy of their homes or workplaces.

posted 05-10-2002 09:27 PM            

This from WND http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27584 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE ...
Press coverage of implanted chips distorted?
Tech experts warn real threats go unreported by 'mainstream' media

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: May 10, 2002
12:43 p.m. Eastern

By Sherrie Gossett
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

As "Good Morning America," "Inside Edition," and "The CBS Evening News" televise the much-hyped "chipping" of eight individuals starting today, Lee Tien, the senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is speaking out passionately about what many experts believe are serious threats posed by implanting chips in humans – threats he says are not being adequately portrayed by the major media.

Tien has been in high demand as a commentator on the issue. And the New York City press office of the American Civil Liberties Union, which once called the chip "an outrage" and "unconstitutional," is currently refusing to comment on the chips, referring all inquiries to Tien or David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Despite the numerous requests for comments, Tien told WND that the media have not effectively communicated his stance on the matter: "I've been used as part of their press campaign – as a token privacy person. It's really insulting."

When the 'chips were down' ...

As WorldNetDaily reported previously, "Digital Angel," has been described by company communications as an implantable microchip that, once inserted into a human, can be tracked by GPS and the information then relayed wirelessly to the Internet, where an individual's location, movements and vital signs can be stored in a database for future reference. The chip, along with another non-trackable version (the VeriChip) was developed by the NASDAQ-traded, Palm Beach, Fla., company, Applied Digital Solutions.

ADS tried unsuccessfully to market the implantable tracking chip in 1999 and 2000. The company hit bumpy ground though, with protests coming from civil liberties advocates, libertarians, electronic freedom activists, radical protest organizations, anarchists and religious groups.

Complicating matters was a failed foray into presidential-year politics. WND has reported on an unconsummated partnership between ADS and the Clinton-Gore administration, pushed by then-Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta just days before the presidential election. The company soon entered a dramatic financial freefall, according to the South Florida Business Journal. Whereas in 2000 shares were $18, by November of the following year they traded at 53 cents. In August of 2001, shares hit an all-time low of 16 cents. The company lost millions and was threatened with delisting by NASDAQ.

Following Sept. 11, however, the company found its golden opportunity to reintroduce the chip, first in its non-tracking form (the VeriChip). An announcement of "phase two" of the company’s strategy is likely to ride on the heels of today's much-publicized implantation event.

WND reported that ADS stated in its promotional materials and website that the sophisticated Digital Angel tracking chip was intended to be implanted in human beings, tapping into an estimated $100 billion worldwide market.

ADS chairman and CEO Richard J. Sullivan answered privacy-advocate critics at a private unveiling of the Digital Angel prototype in October 2000,

"And let me be very clear on one important point," he said. "The potential marketplace I'm talking about is for an attachable device … something worn on the outside … close to the skin. ... We're not planning on or even considering any other application at this time. Only external uses! All of our energy … all of our focus … all of our effort is in this direction. Period. Any other approach or suggestion is purely hypothetical speculation at this time."

Sullivan delivered this statement a week after his website had displayed extensive information about development of the chip for human implantation, and after McKinsey & Co. consultants had prepared a marketing projection for a whopping $70 billion market in the U.S.

Major media 'ignorant' and 'remiss'

Tien is speaking out because he believes the media are doing a poor job of reporting the threats that the chip can propose to individual rights, as well as the technical security weaknesses inherent in the Digital Angel technology delivery system.

"The impression I'm getting is that the implantation thing has a 'gee-whiz' factor that the media seems to like," Tien told WND. "But ever since Sept. 11, reporters have been less aggressive about challenging the privacy implications of the technologies or the practices."

"The media give an obligatory nod to civil liberties and privacy issues," Tien explains, "but the reports lack objective, educated analysis, resulting in them being 'one-sided.' There are few reporters interested in drilling into the real problems."

'Frog in the pot' marketing

Tien is especially concerned over involuntary uses of the chip and the company's intentional strategy to "handle" the public and media, so they are gradually accepting of a more dangerous form of the chip – the GPS-tracked "Digital Angel" chip.

CEO Sullivan has suggested that all foreigners entering the U.S. should be injected with the company’s chips, which he said should replace green cards. While ADS has repeatedly stated that they are only pursuing voluntary applications of the chips, their proposed uses clearly indicate otherwise. The stunning array of potential uses ADS is pushing aggressively include the implantation of prisoners, parolees, people under house arrest, children, the elderly, airport workers, nuclear power plant workers, gun owners and computer users (as a form of logon ID).

The company also envisions the implanted chips creating a "cashless society," being used instead of ATM and credit cards. ADS also wants to control all of the databases for all uses of the chips.

"My take on it," Tien explains, "has always been that the whole idea of forcing people to be tracked against their will is absolutely repugnant."

"They're doing the frog in the water trick – getting the memo out that this is voluntary, making it hard for civil liberty advocates to counter it," Tien explains. "But no matter what great uses are promised by the company, it is just part of an overall, larger trend – a movement toward the much bigger location tracking development of the chip."

Tien also stresses that once the chip is "colonized" into the prison system, it will be even harder to prevent involuntary uses from spreading to other areas of society.

"We're very concerned about this habituating of the public. The idea is, 'Oh well, it's here, so get over it. It must not be so bad.' But once they get it in limited form, the jump to tracking form is easier for the company.”

Security or hype?

Regarding the development of the chips, especially the Digital Angel tracking chip, Tien remarks: "These people [Applied Digital Solutions] have no idea whatsoever about what real security means. I spoke to their CTO, Dr. Keith Bolton. His response was 'We have this proprietary technology' – a meaningless comment."

Applied Digital Solutions contends it spent $40 million dollars on proprietary mixed-media encryption technology, and that the system security, which relies on Secure Socket Layers (SSL), won't be "spoofed." Digital Angel location information is accessed by "authorized individuals" by entering a password into an Internet site. But, according to Tien, the chip delivery system is vulnerable to "spoofing" and fraught with security risks.

"The low-end VeriChip is probably quite significantly insecure, but because of its limited capacity, the actual risk is not great."

However, Tien warns, it would be very different with Digital Angel: "People have the impression that only 'authorized' people will see their personal information. But all sorts of people will eventually see it."

Compounding the problem, Tien says, are existing vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. In March of this year, Digital Angel Corporation signed an agreement with Microsoft MapPoint in order to strengthen its worldwide GPS mapping capabilities.

"The threat is not just to the people implanted with it, but also for those people who hang out with them. They will all be part of a large surveillance system," Tien maintained.

Chilling misuses outlined

Raising further technical concerns, Tien asked, "How do you know what information they've put on the chip? They don't suggest that it's externally programmable, but what if it is now or in the future?"

Tien illustrated his point: "Here I am with this chip. I've got a connection. Is it read-only or writable? And if something is wirelessly written to it, what are they saying?" Referring to the fact that wireless networks and radio frequency data transmission packets are notoriously easy to "hijack," Tien asks,"Who are they saying I am? How hard is it for someone to send a transmission with information identical to my chip?"

Tien argues that such hacking and "spoofing" of the system could be used, for example, to frame someone by falsely placing their identification chip information into a computer and linking the ID number with a crime scene location. "It's equivalent to saying, 'Here's your DNA at this crime scene. Now prove you weren't there,'" said Tien.

Nabbing cyberpunks?

Nathan Cochrane of The Age newspaper in Australia has also researched and explored various potential misuses of the chip. In an e-mail sent to Declan McCullagh, Washington bureau chief for Wired magazine, Cochrane summed up a potential result of using the implanted tracking chip as a logon identification system, as advocated by ADS: "Can you imagine a tracking system that could tell when you had swapped songs over Napster, then dobbing you in to the local police, complete with your location accurate to within a few meters?"

The observation parallels similar developments of other electronic identification systems, like electronic toll booth passes, first marketed as a "convenience" item, but later used to issue speeding tickets to drivers who used the technology.

Cyberspace vulnerabilities critical

During congressional testimony earlier in the year, United States cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke pointed out that when corporate computer systems are hacked into, it is seldom reported to the government. This is because after such information is reported, it could then be retrieved by researchers and reporters by using the Freedom of Information Act. So corporations typically avoid reporting serious security breaches for fear of the financial consequences that diminished consumer trust could bring.

Clarke testified before Congress that there never has been a "secure" Internet product, and that terrorists could have hacked into government systems leaving "back doors" through whi