Firm requests permission to market implantable ID chip

Counterfeiters can fake just about any document with relative ease. But will

they be able to duplicate highly advanced identification ICs that are panted

under your skin?

This week, Florida-based Applied Digital Solutions is scheduled to ask the US

government permission to market a computer ID chip is embedded beneath a

person's skin creating a virtually fool-proof security system for anything from

airports to nuclear power plants and military installations.

The ADS "VeriChip" measures about the size of a grain of rice and

will be difficult to remove or copy. Privacy advocates are voicing a great deal

of concern over the ADS chip technology. The problem is that you always have to

think about what the device will be used for tomorrow,'' said Lee Tien, a senior

attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It's what we call

function creep. At first a device is used for applications we all agree are good

but then it slowly is used for more than it was intended."

ADS has applied for getting approval to make and market the chip from the US

Food and Drug Administration the company intends to limit marketing to companies

that ensure its human use is voluntary. "The line in the sand that we draw

is that the use of the VeriChip would always be voluntarily,'' said Keith

Bolton, chief technology officer and a vice president at Applied Digital.

This week's development is the outcome of a decade of research following a

move in 1992 when Applied bought Destron Fearing, which had been making chips

implanted in animals for several years. ADS has been hesitant to market the ICs

for use in people because of ethical questions. But the devastation of Sept. 11

caused the company to change its opposition to use in humans. "It's a sad

time when people have to wonder whether it's safe in their own country,'' Bolton

said.

The ID chip process is like this: A person or company buys the chips from

Applied Digital for about $200 and the company encodes it with the desired

information. The person seeking the implant takes the tiny device to their

doctor, who inserts it with a needle device.

The chip has no power supply. It has a 1-millimeter-long magnetic coil that

is activated when a scanning device is run across the skin above it. A tiny

transmitter on the chip sends out the data. Without a scanner, the chip cannot

be read. Applied Digital plans to give away chip readers to hospitals and

ambulance companies, in the hopes they'll become standard equipment.