Saturday, November 29, 2003

Chip under the skin: prediction becomes reality

In 1988 Wim de Brie wrote a famous sketch in one of his books. It was about the future of debit-cards and pincode. He assumed a chip would be implanted under the skin on the forehead and the pincode would be replaced by biometrics (using a finger print). Todays Volkskrant explains that a part of this may become reality. The company Applied Digital Solutions last week demonstrated RFID-technology that could be attached under the skin of customers. The device is called a Verichip and the Electronic Privacy Information Center has already protested against its application.