California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed a Bill that bars forceful implantation of RFID tags into human skins. The Bill will come into force from January next year. The newly enacted legislation restricts companies from forcing their employees to wear RFID tags. The governor signed the debatable Bill this week.
No such technology has faced fierce pubic debate than RFID in recent years due to its shocking privacy concerns.
States like Wisconsin and North Dakota have already introduced similar kind of Bills that forbid human tracking through RFID technology.
Joe Simitian, who introduced the RFID Bill in the Silicon Valley observed that forceful implantation of RFID tags in human skins, is just plain wrong as it breaches privacy of the individual, though the government may consider the implementation of this technology in official documents.
He has aptly said,
RFID technology is not in and of itself the issue. It is a minor miracle, with all sorts of good uses. But we cannot and should not condone forced ‘tagging’ of humans. It’s the ultimate invasion of privacy.
The Bill may put the companies like VeriChip into trouble. The company got governmental nod for human implantation three years ago. More than 2,000 people have been tagged by VeriChip chips last year.
The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs argued that RFID devices evade privacy and security as the information kept in the tag can be easily read by the third party with a low cost reader.
Via: eWeek
Image: Hacked Gadgets
