Biometric cards and implants with RFID (arphid) chips raising objections from religious

Bruce Sterling commented on this article in Wired recently. Will the invasion of our personal spaces, whether we are thinking "privacy rights" or "mark of the beast" be a uniting factor between libertarians, constitutional rights advocates, and Christian evangelicals?

The RFID (arphid) is just a radio frequency technical gadget, right? Or is it more? My biggest worry is that the standards for the ID chip being put into American's ID cards (passports, state IDs) is from Walmart. "I buy, therefore I am?"

It is a small device
which is about the size of a grain of rice. It is a new development
which eliminates the necessity of using currency or credit cards. It is
already being used by the wealthy as a tool to help prevent kidnapping.
You will use it for it’s advantages and to help prevent fraud and
identity theft. MOTOROLA (an Israeli Company) is the one producing the
microchip for MONDEX SMARTCARD. They developed several implants for
humans using the “Bio-chip.” The “bio-chip” measures 7mm of length and
0.075mm wide, as large as a grain of rice. It contains a transponder
and a rechargeable Lithium battery. The battery is recharged by a
thermocouple circuit that produces an electrical current with the
fluctuation of body temperature. from Ghanaweb.com

My recent post for e-media tidbits

Image via Wikipedia Read my story here.

This is not funny. It is alarming.

Follow my story about privacy, especially the alarming forced use of RFID devices in government issued identity documents. The picture shows one common RFID device, but look at your credit cards and you might find you are carrying, or is it broadcasting, from your RFID-enabled card.

clipped from poynter.org Posted by Barb Iverson 1:18:58 PM Sept. Scientific American: Dude, Where's My Privacy? this is a good time to pause and reflect on the dark side of being socially wired in to a global network -- from identity theft, to the meaning of privacy, to RFID chips that can track more than inventory.

From arstechnica about Washington state's law.