Geeklawyer notes, wearily, as does the rest of the world, the government’s latest techno wheeze for solving crime: inserting chips into criminals.
A few short years go we were told that electronic tags would solve the menace of innocent not-yet-convicted people committing new crime while on bail and also reduce prison overcrowding by allowing non-custodial options. All one had to do was make them wear a tag & then a private company could track their movements and enforce restraint orders. It worked so brilliantly the government was forced to find a new magic bullet. Of course this one really really will work this time, honest.
From a technological perspective chips seems, like ID Cards, to be another techno-fantasy that hasn’t been thought through. The chips are only the size of a couple of grains of rice and they are buried under the skin. The idea is that this will prevent removal or interference. Frankly
Geeklawyer doubts it. It will certainly be hard for Wayne the chav, in his housing association hovel, to cut it out, but it remains vulnerable to others. Firstly - as with tags one merely needs to wrap it in a Faraday Cage; tin foil or wire mesh would probably work fine. Hoiking them out would probably be doable. And, finally, the chip can be blatted out of existence with a 5 second microwave burst from any £15 dongle purchasable at a DIY electronics store.
There is talk of using them as a GPS device too. Again the fantasy is that the police can track the location of a con at any time. Bollocks. GPS devices are a long long way from being small enough to integrate into a rice grain sized subcutaneous transmitter. So you’re back to an ankle bracelet; like, errr …, the ones that are currently broken.
And once one has been acquitted of a charge or served ones sentence is it removed? Or is it a mark of Cain that any any employer can detect at a job interview with a private scanner?
The whole idea is a fucked up fantasy from ACPO. ACPO is a target of Geeklawyer’s hate to an extent matched only by Tony Blair and neo-Labour.
So Wayne the Carstealing Chav or Rupert the Cocaine Sniffing Laywer could all soon be assaulted by having a needle stuck in em’ and a chip inserted. Nice.
Even the Active long range chips only have a range of 100m. So you would have to have a lot of relay stations if it’s going to be linked to a GPS. The larger the detection range the harder it will be to locate people within a crowd. I guess you could somehow secure a relay system within the curfew restricted geographic areas of the bail condition, but how would you secure the relay tower if it has to be mobile.
Aside from the good points you raise about faraday cages interfering with radio signals etc. It would also be possible for members of the public etc to scan people and steal their personal information. Epically if the government leaves the default encryption key on like they have with the Passport RFID chips (my passport sits inside tinfoil and a solid iron cauldron).
A far simpler approach would simply be to attach a ball and chain to the offender. Or solid shackles around their legs that only allowed them to shuffle about their daily business. For added shame it could play Keith Richards records on little inbuilt sound systems.
Please note, you can’t even find a body under an avalanche without two Recco chips distributed properly. Privacy/dignity aside, practically, this cannot work with the level of investment and competence a government can throw at it.
Only private industry can properly spy on people like this.
(Aside, I think I have nearly had too much lunch-booze to defeat your spam protection).
“Only private industry can properly spy on people like this.”
Shhhh. Say it quietly or the government will hear.
It is okay. The government will fuck up the outsourcing and we’ll still all be safe.
Ssshhh.. don’t mention the potential of RFID Jammers either
http://www.radarjammers.com/rfid-jammers.html
You know in Islington the kids on the council estates will probably just cut their legs off. For a laugh…like.
If you think that Wayne the Chav won’t be able to cut the thing out, I’m afraid you are mistaken. Subcutaneous implants should be really easy to get out, requiring nothing more than a sharp knife.
I cant really imagine him doing that. Yes it would be easy but it would involve knifes blood and pain. Great if one is on the delivery end, but not so much fun if one were the recipient.