The "VeriChip" the "Mark of the Beast" ? The "VeriChip" the "Mark of the Beast" ?
The "VeriChip" the "Mark of the Beas... 
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A Florida company has announced plans to develop a service that would allow consumers to pay for merchandise using microchips implanted under their skin.
Applied Digital Solutions CEO Scott Silverman said he believes the company's VeriChip -- a subdermal microchip that uses radio frequency signals to broadcast an identification number to a scanner -- could someday replace credit cards. Under Silverman's plan, rather than swiping a bank card to make purchases, micro-chipped customers would scan themselves using special readers.
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Click thumbnails for full-size image:ExxonMobil's Speedpass, for example, is a key-chain fob containing an RFID tag that is linked to the holder's credit card; users wave the fob in front of a scanner integrated into a gas pump, and their fuel purchase is charged to their credit card account within seconds. Recently more than 400 McDonald's restaurants in the greater Chicago area started using the Speedpass system to allow customers to more conveniently buy their burgers and fries.
Meanwhile, MasterCard is testing an RFID-enabled credit card called PayPass. Like the Speedpass, the revamped card uses RFID to access the user's financial information and obviates the need for signatures or interactions with store clerks. In an interview with USA Today last week, a senior MasterCard executive said the company is considering integrating its RFID technology into other items, such as pens or earrings.
"Ultimately, it could be embedded in anything -- someday, maybe even under the skin," the executive said.
Which is where the VeriChip folks come in. RFID-enabled pens or jewelry could be easily lost or stolen, but RFID-enabled humans are bit harder to tamper with.
"We are the only ones out there offering implantable ID technology," said Silverman, who announced the "VeriPay" service during a speech Friday at ID World 2003 in Paris. "We believe the market will evolve to use our product."
Although he acknowledged that a final product may be a few years away, Silverman invited banks and credit card companies to collaborate in developing commercial applications using VeriPay. In the near future, Silverman said, the chip could be used as an added antifraud device in financial transactions -- ATM users could enter their PIN and get scanned, for example.
Richard M. Smith, a privacy and security consultant, said one of the biggest hurdles facing the VeriPay system might be the squeamishness of potential users.
"VeriPay will offer some conveniences over RFID credit cards, but I think most people will be creeped out with the idea of putting little radio transmitters in their bodies," Smith said.
Meanwhile, Applied Digital has attracted scorn from some fundamentalist Christians, who believe that VeriChip is the fabled "mark of the beast" of biblical lore. According to the book of Revelation, Satan will someday force people to "receive a mark" on their hands or foreheads in order to buy or sell.
"This is a gigantic step toward the mark of the beast, " said Gary Wohlscheid, whose website, These Last Days Ministries, keeps tabs on what many Christians believe are the signs of a coming religious Armageddon. His site is one of dozens that link VeriChip to the apocalyptic prophecy.
Applied Digital officials say such concern is unfounded because people are chipped voluntarily.
The VeriPay service is one of several the company has launched to promote its product. Applied Digital has positioned its microchip as an anti-kidnapping device (VeriKid), emergency ID system (VeriMed) and as a way to control access to secure buildings (VeriGuard).
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The maker of an implantable human ID chip has launched a national campaign to promote the device, offering $50 discounts to the first 100,000 people who register to get embedded with the microchip.
Applied Digital Solutions has coined the tagline "Get Chipped" to market its product, VeriChip.
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The rice-size device costs $200. Those implanted must also pay for the doctor's injection fee and a monthly $10 database maintenance charge, said ADS spokesman Matthew Cossolotto.
The VeriChip emits a 125-kilohertz radio frequency signal that transmits its unique ID number to a scanner. The number then accesses a computer database containing the client's file. Customers fill out a form detailing the information they want linked to their chip when they undergo the procedure, Cossolotto said.
Earlier this week, ADS announced that the FDA had ruled that the VeriChip was not a regulated device when used for "security, financial and personal identification/safety applications."
The agency's sudden approval of the microchip came despite an FDA investigator's concern about the potential health effects of the device in humans. (Microchips have been used to track animals for years.)
The company is marketing the device for a variety of security applications, including:
* Controlling access to physical structures, such as government or private sector offices or nuclear power plants. Instead of swiping a smart card, employees could swipe the arm containing the chip.
* Reducing financial fraud. In this scenario, people could use their chip to withdraw money from ATMs; their accounts could not be accessed unless they were physically present.
* Decreasing identity theft. People could use the chip as a password to access their computer at home, for example.
Cossolotto said ADS has gotten "hundreds" of inquiries from people interested in being implanted.
Meanwhile, privacy advocates are wondering about the specter of forced chippings.
"(ID chips) are a form of electronic leashes, a form of digital control," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "What happens if an employer makes it a condition of employment for a person to be implanted with the chip? It could easily become a condition of release for parolees or a requirement for welfare."
Rotenberg said EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Request to learn more details about the FDA's sudden approval of VeriChip.
The chip has also alarmed some Christians, who fear it is the biblical "Mark of the Beast"; dozens of websites allude to the Satanic implications of the technology.
The company has consistently tried to allay such fears since the chip debuted in December 2001.
"It's a voluntary device that we think has enormous utility," Cossolotto said. "This is intended for good purposes."
ADS said seven health-care facilities, located in Arizona, Texas, Florida and Virginia, have signed up to distribute the chip, in addition to mobilizing a large bus the company has outfitted as a mobile "chipping station." Would-be customers can also register online.
The company plans to develop a prototype for an implantable GPS ID chip by the end of the year.
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A surprise decision by the Food and Drug Administration permits the use of implantable ID chips in humans, despite an FDA investigator's recent public reservations about the devices.
The FDA sent chip manufacturer Applied Digital Solutions a letter stating that the agency would not regulate the VeriChip if it was used for "security, financial and personal identification or safety applications," ADS said Tuesday.
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But the FDA has not determined whether the controversial chip can be used for medical purposes, including linking to medical databases, the company added. In the United States, ADS has principally marketed VeriChip as a life-saving tool, saying, for example, that unconscious patients brought to emergency rooms could be scanned to determine their medical histories.
Repeated phone calls to the FDA's press office were not returned Tuesday, and ADS refused to provide the media with a copy of the agency's letter.
The decision comes five months after ADS made international headlines by implanting three members of a Florida family with the VeriChip, which is slightly larger than a grain of rice and emits a 125-kilohertz radio frequency signal that can be picked up by a scanner up to four feet away.
In an interview earlier this month, FDA investigator Wally Pellerite said he was unaware of any implantable device that was not regulated by the FDA. Cosmetic implants -– including breast and penile enhancers -– undergo a rigorous FDA examination to determine their effect on the human body despite having no medical function.
Although ID chips have been used in animals for years, they may have "inherent risks" when used in humans, Pellerite said in the interview.
On Tuesday, Pellerite referred questions to the FDA press office.
"At this point, I can't say anything other than to represent what the official agency opinion is in this matter," he wrote in an e-mail. "Previously I was free to give you both sides of the argument and to point out the pros and cons to each. I am no longer free to do that."
Applied Digital Solutions has gotten into hot water in the past for issuing conflicting statements to the media and to the FDA about the VeriChip's intended use. In May, the FDA launched an investigation into the VeriChip when the company repeatedly referred to the chip as a medical lifesaver in the media, yet assured officials it was merely an identification device.
Tuesday's press release was also confusing, with ADS repeatedly referring to VeriChip as a medical device despite the fact that the FDA has not ruled whether the chip may be used for health purposes.
ADS president Scott Silverman did not comment on the release, but said he was pleased with the FDA's decision.
"We'll now go into high gear with our sales, marketing and distribution plans in the U.S.," he said, adding that the company would be focusing on the security and ID aspects of the microchip.
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