Cloning me, Cloning you: RFID implants
Ever since Kevin Warwick implanted a chip in his arm in 1998 (the main use of which seemed to be to turn lights on and off in rooms he entered – or at least that’s the bit I remember), RFID chips have been spreading far and wide.
Our most prominent use in the UK has probably been the “biometric” chips in our passports, which yesterday The Times reported as being really very easy to clone. No suprise there then.
But a bit concerning if you think of some of the uses suggested for RFID – the most interesting (in terms of learning about people and behaviour) is implanting them, Kevin-Warwick style, under your skin. A company called Verichip specialises in this, and has implanted them in a Mythbuster, and in this US policeman, who claims his life was saved by the medical data stored on the chip.
Aside from a couple of scare stories linking the chips to heightened cancer risk, the key weakness is the ability to clone and hack them. Of course, this will probably never be fully solved, and that does mean that if you connect the chip to your credit card details, medical history (although see above) or other area, it could get risky.
But some benefits are clear
- Medical chipping to identify and feed medical records of a patient quickly, especially at the scene of an accident, etc.
- Ease of entry: the chips are already in use at one night club in Spain. Taking the chip out of your Oyster card and implanting it in your hand would also mean no more forgetting or fumbling for your card holder on the underground in London.
- Tracking: the benefits of knowing where you are start with some typical applications like tracking the whereabouts of prisoners, or kids for their safety, and of course all objects and animals for identification and delivery and so on. Furthermore, Kevin Warwick’s light switching can be extended to everything around the home of office – lighting, heating, turing your hifi on and off, logging you into to your home PC and so on. More interstingly, your current location (or at least your location when checked by an RFID scanner) can open up new data streams that you can use to your advantage (or other can misuse to theirs, if so allowed).
Still, I don’t think I’m ready to be chipped quite yet, and if I am, maybe a GPS receiver/transmitter would be better. If more uncomfortable.
