Tracking Tommy's chip plans

The Capital Times/Doug Moe | December 13 2005

TOMMY THOMPSON, former Wisconsin governor and secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, is taking his time getting an RFID - radio frequency identification device - chip inserted under his skin.

In July, Thompson was interviewed on the subject by CNBC after he was named to the board of directors of VeriChip Corp., which sells a glass-encapsulated microchip that can be implanted in humans.

The company says the chips will have positive health care and security benefits, while critics worry about loss of privacy issues.

In the CNBC interview, Thompson was asked the following by anchor Mark Haines: "Would you have one of these implanted in your arm or under your scalp or wherever you put it?"

Thompson replied: "You put it in your right arm and it is very small and it doesn't bother you at all, but it certainly is going to allow you to identify who you are, protect your child if you have a new child that's born in a nursery, you can protect that child from having somebody walk off with it."

Thompson went on trumpeting the device's virtues without really answering the question, and then CNBC correspondent Becky Quick cut in: "I'm sorry, sir, did you just say you would get one implanted in your arm?"

Thompson: "Absolutely, without a doubt."

Quick: "No concerns, no concerns at all?"

Thompson: "No."

A week later, CNET News.com posted a report saying that "to help promote the concepts behind the technology," Thompson would get the chip "implanted under his skin."

But last week, the authors of a new book, "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID," contacted VeriChip to see if Thompson had been implanted with a chip. Five months after his CNBC interview, he has not.

"Spychips," published this fall and written by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, is in its fourth printing and generating a lot of discussion about the ethics of RFID chips. Some critics have called the authors overly paranoid, but others have expressed astonishment at how the RFID technology has already been employed by retailers to track their customers far beyond a store's front door.

McIntyre called VeriChip last week and interviewed company spokesman John Procter, who told her Thompson has been "too busy" to get the chip implant.

When might he get it?

"I wouldn't put any type of timeline on it," Procter said.

Procter also told McIntyre that Tommy "wants to see it in a real-world environment first," adding that the company is trying to arrange a tour for Thompson at the Hackensack University Medical Center, the first hospital to use RFID in its emergency room.

I spoke with Albrecht, McIntyre's co-author, on Monday, and she suggested that perhaps Thompson should have investigated the device before advocating it to the public.

Procter told McIntyre Thompson would definitely be getting the chip.

"We look forward to setting a firm date in accordance to his schedule and other commitments. ... We want to maximize the impact. ... We'd certainly like to. ... really knock it out of the park."

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