UK: Technology Brings New Meaning To Brit Definition of 'Chips'

Updated Jan. 15, 2008, 1:30 pm -- Privacy advocates are up in arms here in the states, as well. In my home state of Ohio, there is controversy over hospitals using RFID chips in bracelets worn by newborns and their mothers. Critics say it is a perfect example of technology in search of a problem.

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Uh-oh. UK Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of prisoners as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.

"What we have here is a government that believes that the rights and liberties of its people ought to be ordered to suit the priorities of British police forces," says a critic of the proposal.

One argument made by a police association president there notes that the government currently tracks cars, so why not track people?

Hmmm . . . At least in this country I can think of many reasons, 10 of them to start, attached to an important document written by James Madison. But then the Columbus Dispatch, New York Times and other newspapers across the nation would claim that it is a "reasonable" move to help keep the populace safer. By the way, have you ever noticed that when government proposes a program that nibbles away at our civil rights just a little bit more that news accounts will call the move something that will "keep people safe." But if firearms owners push proposals for self defense the language is slightly different, usually as follows: "The proposal is designed to help people feel safer?" See the difference?

I propose a chip implant for reporters, so that the public may know at all times where they are.