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Permalink Reply by Misty: Baytheist Living! on August 10, 2009 at 4:38am

Spending a large portion of my life in giant-bug-infested-jungles, underwater, at sea, in Scottish pubs or any number of other hostile territories, I frankly welcome it for me personally. I can see where other adults might have hesitation, though.

Microchipping your pet is a necessity if you EVER plan on traveling with said animal. It insures Fluffy is up to date on all vaccinations and won't be carrying any diseases to places that the other creatures have no immunity to, re-introducing already eradicated diseases to that location, and if the animal is ever lost, it can be returned to you safely. It also helps prevent pet theft and recovery and forging of pedigrees. Verifiable paperwork isn't enough. You can't forge or steal a microchip and match it to another animal. When entire populations of pets and agriculture are at risk....it's a no brainer.

Since I sort of feel that what we do for our precious little Rex and Fido ought to be extended towards humans. Dying with dignity being one thing, the ability to quickly locate an abducted child another. Would you really want to be the parent sitting in a police department as they try to track down your 6 year old daughter, watching the policemen shake their heads in frustration because they KNOW she'd already be brought home safe if her parents weren't holding out against technology due to their own paranoia? Of course not.
Seriously. If the government is tracking your every move, they won't CARE what you're doing. Everyone else is dong the same thing or worse! What's the point? We've already given up so much of our privacy in trade for things we just sorta like...not that have any overall benefit to us.
Just the idea that it takes a microchip to track us is hilarious to me. Look at how much you reveal about yourself on the internet. Not just this site, but social networking, instant messengers...Telephones, CELL phones especially. Credit card transcripts, ATM withdraws, speed cameras, business security cameras, medical records... um what exact benefit would a microchip give the government that it doesn't already have? It will make it harder for under-agers to buy alcohol and cigarettes, maybe.
We are never going to see the One-World-Order in our lifetime. If there is some new bit of technology that makes me healthier and less inconvenienced going through immigration, DMV, taxes......I think it's a bad idea not to buy in.

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on August 10, 2009 at 8:31am

Misty makes a great point about cell phones. If the government wanted to track you, they could do so through your cell phone. The government has shown it can get information on your internet activity quite easily by just asking AT&T for it. But really, the government is not what worries me. Private companies are the main culprits when it comes to privacy abuse in the United States and I think that we are seeing the rise of corporations as a new contender of power in this world (think Wal-Mart). And before I am mistaken for a corporation hating paranoid, I will say that the benefit of such entities is that they help stabilize relationships between countries that they operate in.

Digressions aside, tracking can have it's benefits as well as it's detriments (is that the antonym for benefit?). For people with special needs children that may be prone to wander off, a tracking device of some kind offers peace of mind and a possible life saving service.

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on August 10, 2009 at 2:26pm

Not only tracking devices for children, but in some cases audio recorders as well. One parent was saved a vast amount of trouble due to her placing an audio recorder on her special needs child, as the recording was able to provide incontrovertible evidence that the allegations of child abuse (by an unnamed stranger whose name might begin with an 'S') were totally false.

Plus, tracking chips such as are being described are RFID chips, not active tracking devices. They won't be being tracked by stealthed satellites in geosynchronous orbit. They are passive devices, and require your coming into range of a scanning unit that can emit the proper frequency to cause the chip to emit its signal. And this signal is easily blocked by a simple Faraday cage. My wallet (and passport billfold) both have built-in Faraday cages to prevent people from being able to scan my passport, any RFID-implanted credit cards, etc.

GPS-based locators, which would allow for realtime tracking, are bulkier, require a power supply, and to my knowledge are not yet being produced for implantation, at least not mass-produced. (James Bond Q-technology notwithstanding)

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on August 10, 2009 at 6:46pm

One parent was saved a vast amount of trouble due to her placing an audio recorder on her special needs child, as the recording was able to provide incontrovertible evidence that the allegations of child abuse (by an unnamed stranger whose name might begin with an 'S') were totally false.

You refer to the teacher's aide who went to a psychic who told her that a student was being molested? I was thinking about that when I was reading this post originally. I am beginning to think you are my intellectual Doppelganger. If ever we were in the same room, I'd fear a handshake would cause a matter/antimatter explosion.

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on August 10, 2009 at 8:36pm

That's the one I was thinking of, yes.

You, me and Nelson. We must be borged or something.

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Permalink Reply by basement kitteh on October 18, 2011 at 2:31pm

On a pet I don't mind.

On myself - not even over my dead body.

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Permalink Reply by Robert E. on December 18, 2011 at 11:07am

We are allowing our government to track us more and more everyday. On star is one of those prequels to what is comming. So now they can start, stop your car, lock your doors, monitor speed, impact and aspects of your driving. Look forward to insurance companies using this info to not pay out if you wrecked and were going 1mile over speed limit. Eaves dropping through the on star mic to collect information and/or evidence to activity in vehicles. Tom Toms, garmens and other GPS systems as well as cell phones can all be used to track you and your vehicle. Next your navigational system will just upload a report of your speed to the police and you will get a ticket in the mail. Think of it this way, if you can think of it, they are already doing it or in process of implementing it.

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