Britons 'could be microchipped like dogs in a decade'
30.10.06
Human beings may be forced to be 'microchipped' like pet dogs, a
shocking official report into the rise of the Big Brother state has
warned.
The microchips - which are implanted under the skin - allow the
wearer's movements to be tracked and store personal information
about them.
They could be used by companies who want to keep tabs on an
employee's movements or by Governments who want a foolproof way of
identifying their citizens - and storing information about
them.
The prospect of 'chip-citizens' - with its terrifying echoes of
George Orwell's 'Big Brother' police state in the book 1984 - was
raised in an official report for Britain's Information Commissioner
Richard Thomas into the spread of surveillance technology.
The report, drawn up by a team of respected academics, claims that
Britain is a world-leader in the use of surveillance technology and
its citizens the most spied-upon in the free world.
It paints a frightening picture of what Britain might be like in
ten years time unless steps are taken to regulate the use of CCTV
and other spy technologies.
The reports editors Dr David Murakami Wood, managing editor of the
journal Surveillance and Society and Dr Kirstie Ball, an Open
University lecturer in Organisation Studies, claim that by 2016 our
almost every movement, purchase and communication could be
monitored by a complex network of interlinking surveillance
technologies.
The most contentious prediction is the spread in the use of Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
The RFID chips - which can be detected and read by radio waves -
are already used in new UK passports and are also used the Oyster
card system to access the London Transport network.
For the past six years European countries have been using RFID
chips to identify pet animals.
Already used in America
However, its use in humans has already been trialled in America,
where the chips were implanted in 70 mentally-ill elderly people in
order to track their movements.
And earlier this year a security company in Ohio chipped two of its
employees to allow them to enter a secure area. The glass-encased
chips were planted in the recipients' upper right arms and 'read'
by a device similar to a credit card reader.
In their Report on the Surveillance Society, the authors now warn:
"The call for everyone to be implanted is now being seriously
debated."
The authors also highlight the Government's huge enthusiasm for
CCTV, pointing out that during the 1990s the Home Office spent 78
per cent of its crime prevention budget - a total of £500 million -
on installing the cameras.
There are now 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain and the average
Briton is caught on camera an astonishing 300 times every
day.
This huge enthusiasm comes despite official Home Office statistics
showing that CCTV cameras have 'little effect on crime
levels'.
They write: "The surveillance society has come about us without us
realising", adding: "Some of it is essential for providing the
services we need: health, benefits, education. Some of it is more
questionable. Some of it may be unjustified, intrusive and
oppressive."
Yesterday Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, whose office is
investigating the Post Office, HSBC, NatWest and the Royal Bank of
Scotland over claims they dumped sensitive customer details in the
street, said: "Many of these schemes are public sector driven, and
the individual has no choice over whether or not to take
part."
"People are being scrutinised and having their lives tracked, and
are not even aware of it."
He has also voiced his concern about the consequences of companies,
or Government agencies, building up too much personal information
about someone.
He said: "It can stigmatise people. I have worries about technology
being used to identify classes of people who present some kind of
risk to society. And I think there are real anxieties about
that."
Yesterday a spokesman for civil liberties campaigners Liberty said:
"We have got nothing about these surveillance technologies in
themselves, but it is their potential uses about which there are
legitimate fears. Unless their uses are regulated properly, people
really could find themselves living in a surveillance
society.
"There is a rather scary underlying feeling that people may worry
that these microchips are less about being a human being than
becoming a barcoded product."
