Wireless systems capable of tracking
vehicles and people all over the planet are
leaving businesses aglow with new
possibilities, and some privacy advocates
deeply concerned.

. . .

For instance, Peter Zhou helped to create
a chip called Digital Angel that could be
implanted beneath human skin, enabling his
company to track the location of a person
almost anywhere using a combination of
satellites and radio technology.

. . .

A review of Digital Angel's commercial
potential, though, revealed concern over
the possibility of privacy abuses. So
Professor Zhou, the chief scientist for
Applied Digital Solutions, a company in
Palm Beach, Fla., that makes embedded
devices for tracking livestock, altered
his plans for Digital Angel, which is about
the size of a dime, so that instead of being
implanted it could be affixed to a watchband
or a belt.

. . .

"We need to assure them that there is no
conspiracy to use this information in an
underhanded way." ::::-§

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), March 04, 2001