North Dakota Governor John Hoeven last week signed into law a two sentence bill that effectively forbids anyone from compelling someone else to have an RFID chip implanted under the skin. Wisconsin passed a similar law in 22006.
California currently has a bill before its state house that would outlaw the practice. The issue hasn’t gained much profile in Australia.
The law in North Dakota does not prohibit people getting a chip implant voluntarily. There remain applications like in the military, where soldiers can get chipped so they can be more easily tracked – and possibly so emergency medical records can be stored in-body.
The law has already attracted critics as not going far enough. Reports from the US say the law is took vague and could easily side-stepped. For example, some say the law only addresses RFID being injected under the skin, even though RFID tags can be attached in a variety of ways including swallowing.
The law doesn’t define what constitutes a person being forced to have an implant, critics say. For example, would it be considered force if a person was denied access to a government service if they didn’t get an implant? Or if they were given financial inducements.
For more RFID news click here.
