- A Florida company has announced plans to develop a service
that would allow consumers to pay for merchandise using microchips implanted
under their skin.
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- Applied Digital Solutions CEO Scott Silverman said he
believes the company's VeriChip -- a subdermal microchip that uses radio
frequency signals to broadcast an identification number to a scanner --
could someday replace credit cards. Under Silverman's plan, rather than
swiping a bank card to make purchases, micro-chipped customers would scan
themselves using special readers.
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- Although the biochip payment plan may strike some people
as a bit X Files-ish, financial transactions using radio frequency identification,
or RFID, are already commonplace in some areas.
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- ExxonMobil's Speedpass, for example, is a key-chain fob
containing an RFID tag that is linked to the holder's credit card; users
wave the fob in front of a scanner integrated into a gas pump, and their
fuel purchase is charged to their credit card account within seconds. Recently
more than 400 McDonald's restaurants in the greater Chicago area started
using the Speedpass system to allow customers to more conveniently buy
their burgers and fries.
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- Meanwhile, MasterCard is testing an RFID-enabled credit
card called PayPass. Like the Speedpass, the revamped card uses RFID to
access the user's financial information and obviates the need for signatures
or interactions with store clerks. In an interview with USA Today last
week, a senior MasterCard executive said the company is considering integrating
its RFID technology into other items, such as pens or earrings.
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- "Ultimately, it could be embedded in anything --
someday, maybe even under the skin," the executive said.
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- Which is where the VeriChip folks come in. RFID-enabled
pens or jewelry could be easily lost or stolen, but RFID-enabled humans
are bit harder to tamper with.
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- "We are the only ones out there offering implantable
ID technology," said Silverman, who announced the "VeriPay"
service during a speech Friday at ID World 2003 in Paris. "We believe
the market will evolve to use our product."
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- Although he acknowledged that a final product may be
a few years away, Silverman invited banks and credit card companies to
collaborate in developing commercial applications using VeriPay. In the
near future, Silverman said, the chip could be used as an added antifraud
device in financial transactions -- ATM users could enter their PIN and
get scanned, for example.
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- Richard M. Smith, a privacy and security consultant,
said one of the biggest hurdles facing the VeriPay system might be the
squeamishness of potential users.
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- "VeriPay will offer some conveniences over RFID
credit cards, but I think most people will be creeped out with the idea
of putting little radio transmitters in their bodies," Smith said.
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- Meanwhile, Applied Digital has attracted scorn from some
fundamentalist Christians, who believe that VeriChip is the fabled "mark
of the beast" of biblical lore. According to the book of Revelation,
Satan will someday force people to "receive a mark" on their
hands or foreheads in order to buy or sell.
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- "This is a gigantic step toward the mark of the
beast, " said Gary Wohlscheid, whose website, These Last Days Ministries,
keeps tabs on what many Christians believe are the signs of a coming religious
Armageddon. His site is one of dozens that link VeriChip to the apocalyptic
prophecy.
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- Applied Digital officials say such concern is unfounded
because people are chipped voluntarily.
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- The VeriPay service is one of several the company has
launched to promote its product. Applied Digital has positioned its microchip
as an anti-kidnapping device (VeriKid), emergency ID system (VeriMed) and
as a way to control access to secure buildings (VeriGuard).
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- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61357,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
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