Do You Want to be Tracked 24/7?

Radio Commentary, WMVV 90.7 New Life FM, December 11, 2009
By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Good morning, Jim. Although public health emergencies and pandemics for swine flu have been declared on various levels of government, our state emergency power law has not yet been activated. That’s good, since it includes a potential of unrestricted tracking of our every move 24/7. When the state emergency power law passed in 2002, increased surveillance didn’t seem so dangerous. But now it does, with microchip makers ready and willing to step in and sell their products.

Last session when Representative Len Walker introduced his bill about electronic monitoring of prisoners, I was concerned. If he had not allowed his bill to be amended to prevent it, prisoners could have been forced to receive a microchip implant. But because his bill was amended, prisoners became the only people in Georgia protected from forced microchip implants. You and I have no such protection, although Representative Ed Setzler has worked since 2006 to pass a law requiring personal permission before a microchip can be implanted.

Since then, he has introduced three bills to regulate microchips in Georgia, but none has passed. His 2009 bill, H.B. 38, is still in the House Judiciary Committee and Senator Chip Pearson’s S.B. 235 is still in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both bills are alive for 2010 and both require individual permission before a microchip can be implanted. These are Georgia bills, but the U.S. House healthcare bill includes a federal Registry that would register and track Class 2 and Class 3 medical devices. VeriChip for humans is a Class 2 medical device that’s being renamed “PositiveID.” Its developer bought Steel Vault Corp. to provide security for data derived from microchips that are now being marketed as a surveillance system to detect infections.

While vaccinations, isolation and quarantine are undesirable, they are temporary, but implanted microchips could become permanent implants that would track our every move. Getting one of these bills passed in 2010 to prohibit forced microchip implants is a priority for me, especially, with Georgia public health officials making increased surveillance a priority for detecting swine flu infections. This is a very real threat and current laws do not prohibit mandatory microchip implants, unless you’re a prison inmate. Keep this in mind and, when it’s time to act, I’ll provide the contact numbers. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.