    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.