UK government-paid academics and the Information Commissioner are
admitting that the idea is to introduce mass microchipping in the UK in
the next 10 years.

'Starting a debate', they call it.

As if they said it first!

As if you have to be an 'expert' in anything to realise this!

Much of the British media (including e.g. the 'Daily Telegraph's' 'Home
Affairs Correspondent') have of course faithfully followed the
government press release.

The following is from:

<http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23372564-details/Britons+'co
uld+be+miscropchipped+like+dogs+in+a+decade'/article.do>:



***BEGIN ARTICLE***

Britons 'could be microchipped like dogs in a decade'
30.10.06 
  
Experts predict that humans could soon have ID chips implanted under the
skin

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."

***END ARTICLE***

-- 
banana     "The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you
            give Coca-Cola to your scum, and your best teddy-bear to
            Oxfam, and expect us to lick your frigid fingers for the
            rest of your frigid life." (Mick Travis, 'If...', 1968)