According to its manufacturer, Applied Data Systems (ADS), Verichip can carry individualized data (such as a person's name, current condition, medical records and unique identification number) and is designed to be imbedded under a person's skin. When a special external scanner is pointed at a Verichip, "a number is displayed by the scanner" and the stored information is transmitted "via telephone or Internet." The company is marketing its product for such purposes as "identification, various law enforcement and defense uses and search and rescue." ADS now plans to test the device on a family from the United States, including their 14-year-old son.

As it turns out, serious questions have arisen as to whether this scheme will actually work. Security expert Richard M. Smith labeled the company's plans a mere "publicity stunt and nothing more," adding that the implants currently would be of "no value because hospitals and the police don't have the reader units." In addition, the United States Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve ADS' product for internal human use. Nevertheless, these latest developments have intensified concern over the possible effect that devices like VeriChip may have on individual privacy.

Read Julia Scheeres, "They Want Their ID Chips Now,", Wired News, Feb. 6, 2002.
An ADS statement about VeriChip is posted here.
For further analysis by Richard M. Smith, click.
See also Julia Scheeres, "Kidnapped? GPS to the Rescue," Wired News, Jan. 25, 2002.

[source: Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) Alert, Volume 6, Issue 2]