Would You Volunteer To Be Implanted With A Microchip?

Michelle Franzen
NBC
Jul. 26, 2006

Mark Krieger logs on to his computer using a tiny microchip implanted between his thumb and forefinger.

"I just swipe my hand across the reader and it puts my credentials in," Krieger said.

It's called radio frequency identification or RFID, the same technology used to pay tolls and make credit card purchases.

The computer programmer voluntarily inserted the device to make life easier.

"It's always with me, always in my hands, and I'll never lose it," Krieger said.

A chip, the size of a grain of rice, is implanted beneath the skin and encoded with a unique identifying number.

When scanned, the readable chip allows access to information on everything from products to people.

New Jersey police officer and diabetic Bill Koretsky had a chip embedded in his arm for health reasons.

When he crashed during a high-speed chase, doctors accessed his medical history within minutes.

"I couldn't answer all their questions fully, but they had all the information there in front of them," Koretsky said.

Verichip Corporation introduced the first human-implantable microchip and nearly 100 hospitals nationwide now use the technology.

But experts warn using RFID to exchange personal and financial data could compromise security. To prevent that, lawmakers need to set standards to keep this latest technology from chipping away at our privacy.