Sen. Becky Harris, R-Las Vegas, on Monday called for passage of a bill prohibiting anyone, public or private, from requiring installation of a microchip in another person.
Harri told the Senate Judiciary Committee 10 other states have enacted similar legislation because of concerns about privacy, protection of people’s rights and a variety of ethical issues. She said private sales of those Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) chips are growing rapidly and that the chips come in a $100 self-installation kit with the chips themselves the size of a grain of rice.
“Ethical issues are really really important,” Harris said. “Who owns the chip and who owns the information on that chip.”
She said employers in two European countries have started requiring employees to be “chipped”
Harris said there is no encryption on the chips so they could be hacked and information stolen from people.
She said Senate Bill 109 wouldn’t prohibit a voluntary decision by some one to have a chip placed under their skin but would prevent the government or anyone else from requiring it.
Jonathan Friedrick testified those chips could be very useful in a case of Alzheimer’s to help find a patient who wanders away.
But public defenders said they were concerned about the provision in the bill that would make each day a person has a chip in his or her body a separate felony offense so that if some one had a chip in another person for 100 days, that person would be guilty of 100 felonies.
Harris said she is willing to work with those people to resolve any issues with the chips bill.
The Associated Press reproted, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the chips for use in humans in 2004. Wisconsin, North Dakota, California and Oklahoma subsequently enacted legislation banning any required implantations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The committee took no action on the bill.