RFID chips in humans - Orwellian nightmare or efficient future?
by Nada Kakabadse and Andrew Kakabadse
18 September 2012
The wider use of RFID implants in humans may be inevitable, but such computer tracking should not go unchallenged - a full debate is needed about the ethical and health issues, argue Professor Nada Kakabadse and Professor Andrew Kakabadse
New technologies can creep up on us. They attract attention at the time they are announced and then go to ground. Those we find no use for are discarded. Others mutate, evolve, find new applications or combine with other technologies. Potential uses proliferate as the technology gradually colonises its opportunity space in a process of dissemination, development and adoption that unfolds below the threshold of public awareness.
Two decades ago, Mark Weiser wrote in Scientific American that "the most profound technologies are those that disappear". He referred to technologies that "weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it". They can disappear not only because, like the mobile phone, they become familiar but also because they are so small or unobtrusive they are practically invisible. Radio Frequency Identification or RFID tag technology is an example of the latter.
Radio frequency codings were used for 'identification of friend or foe' in the Second World War. The first RFID tags emerged in the 1950s, in the nuclear industry, to identify and track radioactive material. Miniaturisation opened up more applications. In the 1990s, RFID tags were attached to materials and products - to improve stock control and supply chain management. They were used by libraries for tracking and sorting books, implanted in pets and other livestock and - after a pioneering deployment in Oklahoma in 1991 - they became commonplace in toll-road payment systems throughout the United States.
In 1998 - Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at Reading University in the United Kingdom, implanted himself with an RFID tag for an experiment. This was an important milestone. Tags attached to or embedded in inanimate objects used, or carried by humans - such as products and credit cards - raised no ethical or philosophical issues not raised by other technologies; like closed circuit television, for example. But when technology pierces the skin and invades the sovereign state of the human body - it enters a domain awash with ethical, moral, political and philosophical controversy.
Highly charged terms such as 'human branding' enter the discourse. Orwellian visions of mind and body control are evoked. Cries of outrage are heard about invasions of privacy, aggressive covert surveillance and infringements of civil liberties. In 2004 - the US Food and Drug Administration approved an RFID implant, VeriChip, which was about the size of a grain of rice - for medical purposes. Nightclubs in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Barcelona in Spain already offer implants to customers for entry and payment purposes. Some claim the Obamacare health act makes subdermal RFID implants mandatory for all US citizens.
We know that RFID technologies promise enormous benefits in areas ranging from security and health monitoring to business efficiency. But there is a dark side to the technology; a potential for abuse. To those with no love of individual freedom and self-determination - it opens up seductive new vistas for control, manipulation and oppression. To get an idea of how people feel about subdermal tags and provide a starting point for a much-needed debate about their use, we spoke to people representing four groups; those who have implants; those contemplating implants for their children for safety or security reasons; policy advisers, who have considered recommending implants to clients; and opinion leaders.
The first two groups - implanted or contemplating implants - had not considered ethical issues. Some regretted this. They felt they had made errors of judgement they could have avoided if the issues had been explained. All participants felt insufficient information on health and ethical issues was provided to those contemplating RFID implants. Some participants strongly advocated more pilot testing before further adoption. Others were worried about what they felt was the poorly-controlled, opaque nature of the manufacture of tag implants. All participants felt that the widespread use of RFID implants was inevitable but there was a general unease about what they saw as the covert, subtly coercive manner in which implant technology was being introduced by governments and big business.
Our study suggests that a number of specific questions need to be answered in each case. Who owns the implanted microchip? Are the benefits for the implanted individual proportionate to the rights foregone? Who has access to the information transmitted? Is consent to the implant fully informed? Who guarantees the individual's rights against violation? How medically safe and technically secure is the technology? The wider use of RFID implants in humans may be inevitable, but it should not go unchallenged. A full debate is needed about the ethical and health issues, to ensure deployment of implants comply with Article 3 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It asserts the right to "life, liberty and security of person".
Nada Kakabadse is professor in management and business research at Northampton University and Andrew Kakabadse is professor of international management development at Cranfield University – both work out of the United Kingdom
New technologies can creep up on us. They attract attention at the time they are announced and then go to ground. Those we find no use for are discarded. Others mutate, evolve, find new applications or combine with other technologies. Potential uses proliferate as the technology gradually colonises its opportunity space in a process of dissemination, development and adoption that unfolds below the threshold of public awareness.
Two decades ago, Mark Weiser wrote in Scientific American that "the most profound technologies are those that disappear". He referred to technologies that "weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it". They can disappear not only because, like the mobile phone, they become familiar but also because they are so small or unobtrusive they are practically invisible. Radio Frequency Identification or RFID tag technology is an example of the latter.
Radio frequency codings were used for 'identification of friend or foe' in the Second World War. The first RFID tags emerged in the 1950s, in the nuclear industry, to identify and track radioactive material. Miniaturisation opened up more applications. In the 1990s, RFID tags were attached to materials and products - to improve stock control and supply chain management. They were used by libraries for tracking and sorting books, implanted in pets and other livestock and - after a pioneering deployment in Oklahoma in 1991 - they became commonplace in toll-road payment systems throughout the United States.
In 1998 - Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at Reading University in the United Kingdom, implanted himself with an RFID tag for an experiment. This was an important milestone. Tags attached to or embedded in inanimate objects used, or carried by humans - such as products and credit cards - raised no ethical or philosophical issues not raised by other technologies; like closed circuit television, for example. But when technology pierces the skin and invades the sovereign state of the human body - it enters a domain awash with ethical, moral, political and philosophical controversy.
Highly charged terms such as 'human branding' enter the discourse. Orwellian visions of mind and body control are evoked. Cries of outrage are heard about invasions of privacy, aggressive covert surveillance and infringements of civil liberties. In 2004 - the US Food and Drug Administration approved an RFID implant, VeriChip, which was about the size of a grain of rice - for medical purposes. Nightclubs in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Barcelona in Spain already offer implants to customers for entry and payment purposes. Some claim the Obamacare health act makes subdermal RFID implants mandatory for all US citizens.
We know that RFID technologies promise enormous benefits in areas ranging from security and health monitoring to business efficiency. But there is a dark side to the technology; a potential for abuse. To those with no love of individual freedom and self-determination - it opens up seductive new vistas for control, manipulation and oppression. To get an idea of how people feel about subdermal tags and provide a starting point for a much-needed debate about their use, we spoke to people representing four groups; those who have implants; those contemplating implants for their children for safety or security reasons; policy advisers, who have considered recommending implants to clients; and opinion leaders.
The first two groups - implanted or contemplating implants - had not considered ethical issues. Some regretted this. They felt they had made errors of judgement they could have avoided if the issues had been explained. All participants felt insufficient information on health and ethical issues was provided to those contemplating RFID implants. Some participants strongly advocated more pilot testing before further adoption. Others were worried about what they felt was the poorly-controlled, opaque nature of the manufacture of tag implants. All participants felt that the widespread use of RFID implants was inevitable but there was a general unease about what they saw as the covert, subtly coercive manner in which implant technology was being introduced by governments and big business.
Our study suggests that a number of specific questions need to be answered in each case. Who owns the implanted microchip? Are the benefits for the implanted individual proportionate to the rights foregone? Who has access to the information transmitted? Is consent to the implant fully informed? Who guarantees the individual's rights against violation? How medically safe and technically secure is the technology? The wider use of RFID implants in humans may be inevitable, but it should not go unchallenged. A full debate is needed about the ethical and health issues, to ensure deployment of implants comply with Article 3 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It asserts the right to "life, liberty and security of person".
Nada Kakabadse is professor in management and business research at Northampton University and Andrew Kakabadse is professor of international management development at Cranfield University – both work out of the United Kingdom
COMMENTS
Implants into humans is nothing new. In the 1990s, babies in some UK hospitals were 'chipped'. I was given this info from several of the nursing staff.
Roland - Manchester, Great Britain
So what does a "full debate" mean? That the people will get a say in this diabolical liberty taking process?
Sansome - Leeds
Will the RIFD (microchip Implant) be implemented in Europe?
Michael Eaton - USA
