"New" Microchip Knows Your Location To Within Centimeters
(PrisonPlanet.com)
The development of a new microchip for cell phones that knows the user’s location to within a few centimeters confirms the fact that contrary to biblical fears about mandatory implantable microchips, people have willingly exchanged their privacy for convenience and that the cell phone itself is the de facto “mark of the beast”. ... The only way that technology can advance without destroying basic human rights in the process is if strong new legislation is passed increasing the penalties against both industry and government for using such technology to spy on users. However, the opposite is happening, with each new technological leap being dovetailed by aggressive efforts on behalf of the state to eviscerate what little privacy rights we have left.

Readers of my columns know that I don't necessarily have a lot of confidence in PrisonPlanet.com or InfoWars.com, but this article by Paul Watson seems to be an accurate report (See MIT article) and worth addressing.

First, of course, Watson is right: we HAVE voluntarily adopted the means of allowing government (or whomever) to track our every move, all in the guise of our own safety and convenience. But then, most of the time, history shows that people DO voluntarily submit themselves to tyranny and slavery. Consider what Joseph helped the Pharaoh do in Egypt to the Egyptians, how he used it to capture his own brothers and family, and how the Egyptians then used it to enslave Joseph's descendants. Or how the Hebrews sold themselves to a king "like all the other nations." Or how christians slid into religious tyranny by a hierarchy in the Second Century and pretty much every century since, time and again. Or how Germany voted in Hitler, Argentina voted in Peron, Venezuela voted in Chavez, and the US voted in the current incumbent of 1600 PA.

Second, there IS a serious concern about privacy, even if the "mark of the beast" comments might seem a bit overboard. However, except in rare circumstances, there is little difference in the theft of privacy between a currently-deployed GPS tracking system in a phone that is only accurate to 2-5 meters (6 to 20 feet) and one within a "few centimeters" and knows your exact elevation (currently deployed GPS system also can determine your elevation within 6-10 feet, more than accurate enough to narrow it down to one or two floors most of the time. Folks, I don't care if you have a 10-year-old cell phone or one UPS delivered yesterday, you ALREADY have lost a lot of privacy. This chip just refines the data and makes it easier to access. But your "basic human rights" were compromised a long time ago, when it comes to cell phones.

The most serious problem I have with Watson is what he comes up with as the only thing to "combat" the dire threat he postulates. How in blazes can he possibly think that "strong new legislation" is going to do ANYTHING but lull the frogs in the pot for a bit longer? The government has proven and proven and BOASTED that "we don't need no stinkin' law" and that they are not constrained by anything. This current administration is in contempt of court for numerous violations of the law, and has given Congress the finger time and time again, and breaks both the laws and the Constitution on a daily basis.

All the laws in the world will NOT change this - and even if there WERE ways to enforce the law, we first would have to catch them, charge them, try them, and punish them in some way to make some other idiot not take the bribes or decide that they want to find out what their husband or girl-friend or hated neighbor or boss or employee are doing. Watson should know better - or Jones should. And lets not even talk about laws keeping "private" companies from doing this: anyone know "Cardholder Services" or the firm formerly known as Blackwater or - for that matter, Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunctions or her brother's health-care giver.

No, the only REAL answers to this are two:
(1) Use technology to defeat technology: if we can have spammers pretending to be your sister or buddy e-mailing you; if we can have "Cardholder Services" making illegal phone solicitations while stealing the phone numbers of people all across the country, we can surely find a way to flummox Big Brother's mall sensors or WiFi readings or cellular tower measurements. Indeed, I suspect that a LOT of people have already come up with, and are using, ways to do that. In fact, here is one way, for free: make yourself a bag out of aluminum foil and store your phone, when not in use or when you are not expecting a call, inside it. If you don't want a homemade bag, use a (clean) Fritos bag or Goldfish or Teddy Grahams bag: anything that is fully lined with aluminum or CAN be lined with aluminum. Or remove the battery (turning it off won't do it). I know: you won't get those fresh, hot tweets or calls or twitters or text-messages or FaceBook updates - and people will have to leave you messages. Gee. We lived without having phones laminated to our ears 24-7 for about 120 years or more after Alex Bell invented the things.

(2) Get RID of the government, or at least reduce it to such an extent that they don't have time (people or funds) to track you 24-7 or even 4-1! Which action WILL, by the way, allow the creation of a free market in which it is NOT advantageous to create monopolies or de facto cartels to provide phone services, and in which companies that DO try to mess with their customers' privacy find themselves losing market shares to those who give their customers what they want. And in which technology is NOT ham-strung by billions of words of regulations and laws and interpretations and rulings.