Microchips Said to Foil VIP Kidnappers


(but--might not they help kidnappers pinpoint their victims?)

The London Telegraph, October 6, 1998
ITALIAN dignitaries who fear being kidnapped are having microprocessor
homing devices planted in their bodies so police can track them down if
they are abducted.

The microchips - called Sky-Eyes - were originally developed for
intelligence use by Israeli researchers. Rome's La Repubblica newspaper
described the latest development as a "biological adaptation" of the
Global Positioning System, which is already in use to protect luxury
cars from being stolen.

Sky-Eyes are sold by a company called Gen-Etics, which has patented the
device for private use but which is cautious about supplying further
details, in order to protect its clients.

Sky-Eyes are said to be made of "synthetic and organic fibre". They
reportedly run on such a small amount of energy that this can be
"borrowed" from the human body. The chip is supposed to be invisible to
both the naked eye and to X-rays. A person who carries it is supplied
with an eight-digit code by the company. He, or she, is advised to
divulge this only to next of kin or a trusted legal representative.

In case of the person's disappearance, those in possession of the code
are supposed to contact the company's control centre, so that the
kidnapped victim's whereabouts may be pinpointed, and the police
informed. The Sky-Eye is said to have a margin of error of just 150
yards. Kidnapping is still common in Italy.

One recent victim, Giuseppe Soffiantini, an elderly northern
industrialist, was wary when asked if he would buy one. At the weekend
he said: "As they also know about the discovery, the kidnappers will
find a counter system to use against it. They are treacherous."

During his long captivity, his kidnappers cut off pieces of his ears and
sent them to his family. Mr Soffiantini, was released earlier this year
after a #2 million ransom was paid. He said: "But if the microchip
worked, then of course I'd get one.

The Arizona Republic
Thursday, July 20, 1989
Eye in Sky to Track Kids a Teen Horror
by Charles Kelly

Jack Dunlap envisions his eye in the sky as a way to rescue snatched
children, but it sounds like a teen-age nightmare.

You, Joe Teen-Ager, have a computer chip buried in your body, and a
satellite in the sky tracks you wherever you go; to your girlfriend's house,
to the local poolroom or to the beer party in the desert.

Whenever Mom or Pop get worried, the police are dialed and asked to track
you down on their computers.

Of course, Dunlap didn't come up with his KIDSCAN idea so that it could
bird-dog teen-agers.

The system is supposed to help find children who have been "picked up,
transported, molested, abused, raped and murdered," he says.

Dunlap who runs Arizona West Film Productions Inc.  In Tucson and works as a
private investigator when the film business gets slow, thinks he has hit on
a lifesaver.

"The most important thing is to save the children," he says.

Each child whose parents signed up for KIDSCAN would get a computer chip
planted under the skin and an identification number.

The chip would transmit a signal that would bounce off a satellite and be
picked up by police on a computer-screen map.

A parent with a missing child could call the police, give the KIDSCAN number
and have the child traced.  Police everywhere would have the equipment, so
you could find a child anywhere.

But if Dunlap's dream is realized, it will cause some troubling privacy
problems, said Louis Rhodes, director of the Arizona chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union.

The police could use the system to enforce curfew laws or trace the
movements of teen-agers who had not agreed to such scrutiny, he said.

"It's always dangerous to have so much information given to the police,"
Rhodes said.

"Detective Charles Masino, a veteran of the missing-persons division of the
Phoenix Police Department, acknowledged that some parents would be concerned
about the "Big Brother" aspects of KIDSCAN.

But the concept is attractive, Masino said.

"Any technology that can be used to detect missing children and children
that are in danger would be welcomed," he said.

Dunlap's project is just in the talking stage.  He's trying to raise money
to have a prototype built.

At one time, he said, he had some Pennsylvania investors prepared to kick in
$600,000.

He received encouragement from employees of Martin Marietta Energy Systems,
Inc. which runs the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Dunlap said officials there first told him they would build the prototype,
them backed out.

"It was like a James Bond movie," Dunlap said.  "It was like they had been
told to shut up and stay away from it."

When the lab people sidestepped the project, his financial angels made
themselves scarce, Dunlap said.

"It was really weird," Dunlap said.  "this sort of knocked me for a loop."

Joe Culver, a lab spokesman, said there wasn't anything weird about it.

lab people did speak to Dunlap about a microchip they are developing, he
said.  Scientists want to paste the chip on "killer bees" to tack them as
they sweep up into the United States from Mexico.

"But the chip hasn't been fully tested," Culver said, "so the lab can't make
a commitment to Dunlap."

"It's way premature," Culver said.