Your bosses can still make you work weekends and give you projects you loathe. But Missouri lawmakers have voted to make it a crime if they order a microchip to be implanted in your arm.
Forcing someone to get a microchip implant already is barred in California, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Legislation awaiting Gov. Matt Blunt's signature would make it a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $1,000 for a boss who demands that a worker get an implant.
Katherine Albrecht, an expert in consumer privacy and radio frequency identification, acknowledges that microchip implants might sound like "black helicopters and tin foil hats."
But the founder of AntiChips.com and other critics argue there are tangible medical, privacy and religious worries driving attempts to pass laws banning forced implants.
"The people who oppose it don't understand how real the threat is, and the people who are gung-ho, don't understand its power," Albrecht said.
Albrecht been trying to persuade state lawmakers across the country to pass legislation regulating technology that allows for "tagged" items to be tracked when microchips send off a radio signal to special readers. The information can then be linked to a database.
This year at least 17 states have considered bills regulating or restricting radio frequency identification, or RFID, according the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last year, there were 13.
To read the rest of the story, see BDN's May 30 BDN Extra.
