Forced Injected Spychips For the Homeless
by LPJ 06 Apr 2004
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
said Thursday that it was about to begin testing a new technology
designed to help more closely monitor and assist the nation's
homeless population.Under the pilot program, which grew out of a
series of policy academies held in the last two years, homeless
people in participating cities will be implanted with mandatory
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags that social workers and
police can use track their movements.
The RFID technology was developed by HHS' Health Resources and
Services Administration (HRSA) in partnership with five states,
including California and New York. "This is a rare opportunity to
use advanced technology to meet society's dual objectives of better
serving our homeless population while making our cities safer," HRSA
Administrator Betty James Duke said.
The miniscule RFID tags are no larger than a matchstick and will be
implanted subdermally, meaning under the skin. Data from RFID
tracking stations mounted on telephone poles will be transmitted to
police and social service workers, who will use custom Windows NT
software to track movements of the homeless in real time.In what has
become a chronic social problem, people living in shelters and on
the streets do not seek adequate medical care and frequently
contribute to the rising crime rate in major cities.
Supporters of subdermal RFID tracking say the technology will
discourage implanted homeless men and women from committing crimes,
while making it easier for government workers to provide social
services such as delivering food and medicine.Duke called the RFID
tagging pilot program "a high-tech, minimally-intrusive way for the
government to lift our citizens away from the twin perils of poverty
and crime." Participating cities include New York City, San
Francisco, Washington, and Bethlehem, Penn.
Participating states will receive grants of $14 million to $58
million from the federal Projects for Assistance in Transition from
Homelessness (PATH) program, which was created under the McKinney
Act to fund support services for the homeless. A second phase of the
project, scheduled to be completed in early 2005, will wirelessly
transmit live information on the locations of homeless people to
handheld computers running the Windows CE operating system.A
spokesman for the National Coalition for the Homeless, which
estimates that there are between 2.3 million and 3.5 million people
experiencing homelessness nationwide, said the pilot program could
be easily abused.
"We have expressed our tentative support for the idea to HRSA, but
only if it includes privacy safeguards," the spokesman said. "So far
it's unclear whether those safeguards will actually be in place by
roll-out."Chris Hoofnagle, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, said the mandatory RFID program would be
vulnerable to a legal challenge. "It is a glaring violation of the
Tenth Amendment, which says that powers not awarded to the
government are reserved to the people, and homeless people have just
as many Tenth Amendment rights as everyone else," said Hoofnagle,
who is speaking about homeless privacy at this month's Computers
Freedom and Privacy conference in Berkeley, Calif.
While HRSA's program appears to be the first to forcibly implant
humans with RFID tags, the technology is becoming more widely
adopted as retailers use it to track goods. Wal-Mart Stores said
last year that it will require its top 100 suppliers to place RFID
tags on shipping crates and pallets by January 2005
I stole this from a group I subscribe to. It is a fake article but it does pose some fairly serious questions.
Discuss on, if you like
Later
by LPJ 06 Apr 2004
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
said Thursday that it was about to begin testing a new technology
designed to help more closely monitor and assist the nation's
homeless population.Under the pilot program, which grew out of a
series of policy academies held in the last two years, homeless
people in participating cities will be implanted with mandatory
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags that social workers and
police can use track their movements.
The RFID technology was developed by HHS' Health Resources and
Services Administration (HRSA) in partnership with five states,
including California and New York. "This is a rare opportunity to
use advanced technology to meet society's dual objectives of better
serving our homeless population while making our cities safer," HRSA
Administrator Betty James Duke said.
The miniscule RFID tags are no larger than a matchstick and will be
implanted subdermally, meaning under the skin. Data from RFID
tracking stations mounted on telephone poles will be transmitted to
police and social service workers, who will use custom Windows NT
software to track movements of the homeless in real time.In what has
become a chronic social problem, people living in shelters and on
the streets do not seek adequate medical care and frequently
contribute to the rising crime rate in major cities.
Supporters of subdermal RFID tracking say the technology will
discourage implanted homeless men and women from committing crimes,
while making it easier for government workers to provide social
services such as delivering food and medicine.Duke called the RFID
tagging pilot program "a high-tech, minimally-intrusive way for the
government to lift our citizens away from the twin perils of poverty
and crime." Participating cities include New York City, San
Francisco, Washington, and Bethlehem, Penn.
Participating states will receive grants of $14 million to $58
million from the federal Projects for Assistance in Transition from
Homelessness (PATH) program, which was created under the McKinney
Act to fund support services for the homeless. A second phase of the
project, scheduled to be completed in early 2005, will wirelessly
transmit live information on the locations of homeless people to
handheld computers running the Windows CE operating system.A
spokesman for the National Coalition for the Homeless, which
estimates that there are between 2.3 million and 3.5 million people
experiencing homelessness nationwide, said the pilot program could
be easily abused.
"We have expressed our tentative support for the idea to HRSA, but
only if it includes privacy safeguards," the spokesman said. "So far
it's unclear whether those safeguards will actually be in place by
roll-out."Chris Hoofnagle, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, said the mandatory RFID program would be
vulnerable to a legal challenge. "It is a glaring violation of the
Tenth Amendment, which says that powers not awarded to the
government are reserved to the people, and homeless people have just
as many Tenth Amendment rights as everyone else," said Hoofnagle,
who is speaking about homeless privacy at this month's Computers
Freedom and Privacy conference in Berkeley, Calif.
While HRSA's program appears to be the first to forcibly implant
humans with RFID tags, the technology is becoming more widely
adopted as retailers use it to track goods. Wal-Mart Stores said
last year that it will require its top 100 suppliers to place RFID
tags on shipping crates and pallets by January 2005
I stole this from a group I subscribe to. It is a fake article but it does pose some fairly serious questions.
Discuss on, if you like
Later
