Employee Microchip Tracking Bill Discussed,
Pastor Dale Morgan
Employee Microchip Tracking Bill Discussed
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Employee microchip tracking bill discussed
By GWEN BRISTOL, Correspondent
BISMARCK – Discussion on a bill that could limit the use of implanted
microchips in humans ignited plenty of what-if scenarios at a Senate
Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
The bill was presented by Sen. Randel Christmann, R-Hazen, with the
intent to keep employers from forcing employees to have microchip
implants for the purpose of closer supervision.
“The technology, if not there, is very close,” Christmann said. “We
want to make sure employees are never pressured into this before it
becomes a problem.”
“How far does it really go?” asked Bismarck resident Jim Oshanyk, who
said the implanted microchips could keep track of an employee’s
movements down to the number of hand repetitions. “They can keep very
close tabs on you. My main concern is privacy.”
Oshanyk listed examples of microchip implant uses, including a
business in Ohio that required some employees working on top-secret
projects to have implants. He mentioned that in some areas, newborns
receive implants that could track them if they were ever abducted.
Steve Bitz, also of Bismarck, said the microchip implantation could
work like a UPC code, but could differentiate products individually
and not just by type. In a human, it would work like an ID. Besides
being a privacy issue, Bitz said there could be health risks. Irma
Bitner, a registered nurse with Professional Home Care, agreed.
Bitner said some of the health concerns are that the chips could
migrate inside a person’s body and could cause serious burns,
especially in cases where implanted individuals had to have treatments
like MRI scans.
She also said anyone who had the ability to read and clone the chips
could steal the identity information stored on the chips.
“I prefer my records to be kept in a record room,” she said.
“I do not want mandatory implants in our children,” she said
later. “Let them have the same freedoms we have had.”
One possible issue raised by committee members was that the bill could
limit the way some criminals could be tracked electronically.
Christmann’s position was to ban the microchip implantations and let
those criminals be monitored by other electronic means.