Maybe this has been discussed here before, however:
If the technology existed (and it could probably be done with today’s tech), where you can opt for a minor surgical implant—at the cost of $1000, per—for a device the size of a tube of Chapstick, deep within your abdominal cavity that could:
Very securely, activate and broadcast your position via radio, GPS and the cell-network upon speaking a key-phrase.
Can be activated remotely by a concerned loved one, via local authorities, in case you’ve gone missing and you’ve given them your passcode.
It would monitor certain critical vital signs and broadcast the location as well as the data concerning your condition to local authorities in case of emergency.
However, if activated due to inappropriate use, the responsible party would be fined for $10,000 (or perhaps far more, depending on any punitive damages that may apply) in order to mitigate things like stalking or spying on your lover, spouse, kids, etc.
The battery lasted for at least 30 years before it had to be replaced, and could be recharged via induction every year or so; If implanted by your parents as a kid, you had authority to change the key-phrase/password once you reached adulthood (or some such law according to state legislature).
Would automatically activate upon removal.
Would you be for such a thing?
Would you opt for it for yourself? Your SO? Your loved ones/kids?
Do you think it’d be the start of Big Brother.
A horrible, terrible idea because there’s always a way to exploit such technologies? If so, what?
Do you think technology, similar to this, is inevitable? If so, what might you add or subtract to tighten up any loopholes?
It can be activated by the local authorities. Even if I trusted the local authorities at the present time, which I don’t, there’s no guarantee that they’d remain trustworthy in the future. Perhaps at some point, a totalitarian government will take over. Then where would I be?
No. They already have personal locator GPS units that are getting smaller and cheaper all the time. You will probably be able to get one in watch form in a few years and you can already carry them in your pocket if you think you might need one. I don’t want one implanted in my abdominal cavity. The only reason that would be useful is locating my body after I got killed and I don’t really care about that.
Wouldn’t a totalitarian gov’t just make you get the implant? After all, they’re totalitarian.
I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about nefarious authorities tracking me (my daily movements bore me, I doubt hypothetical evil overlords would be that interested). On the other hand, I don’t spend a lot of time worrying that I’ll somehow get kidnapped or incapacitated in some really isolated place (I occasionally go hiking, but I make a point of telling someone where I’m going and have a cel).
So I wouldn’t get one just to save myself the thousand bucks plus hassle of installation surgery.
Funny you should mention this, I just had my dog microchipped yesterday; I thought about this all the way home.
I would get the wrist-type one described above for my child, but I’d never have anything like that implanted in my body. The administration changes every four to eight years, and some of those in power have played fast and loose with civil rights (especially privacy rights!) in the very recent past.
No way would I want to give the next unknown group the ability to track me so easily.
I’d seriously consider it as I get older, for the vital sign monitoring function. I’m not really worried about kidnapping, there’s little chance of that happening; but there’s a significant chance of me at some point as I age suffering something like a heart attack when I’m alone with no one to notice me falling over.
Probably. It would probably be a lot more popular in nations where kidnapping is more common.
A non-implanted version for purely medical purposes; probably cheaper, and secure enough for people who are worried about medical issues instead of kidnapping. A means of shutting it down for people who are worried about unauthorized tracking; some coded signal. You could even make it impractical to coerce you into shutting it down by tying the shutdown function into the vitals it’s monitoring, so it doesn’t work or even alerts the police if you try to shut it off under extremely high stress; like being threatened by a potential kidnapper, say.
Actually, it would be more useful as an anti-murder precaution than an anti-kidnapping one; kidnapping is much rarer, and many people who might otherwise shoot you like a mugger might be more reluctant if they knew killing you would alert the cops. Or slightly modified it might work as an anti-rape device; if it can detect sexual penetration and a brain activity pattern that indicates high stress & unwillingness, it could call the cops.
Not long after I posted the OP, the thought occured to me of including a “kill-phrase”, for temporary or permanent deactivation.
This code is only held by you, and some sort of astoundingy secure federal registry, with multiple levels of encryption and protocols for matching a code to an individual would be in place.
If, say, someone kidnapped your 4 year old daughter, and she had the implant, you’d have to take the code to the proper authority, and they’d have to run it up the heirarchy to activate it to receive position and vitals data.
If you’re a felon on the run, and happen to have one, I suppose the courts could issue a warrant to remotely re-activate it; but that’s some Supreme Court shit, right there.
As Der Trihs noted: a heart attack, stroke or embolism if you’re alone. Get lost in the woods. Raped, abducted, or held hostage. A precautionary for finding your kids if they go missing/lost, etc.
True enough. I had thought a faraday cage for shielding cell data, or jamming radio would be a relatively easy way to get around this for kidnappers. But wondered if there’s a reasonable amount of counter-measures that could mitigate that type of creative subterfuge.
Not that simple. That would be pretty elaborate for some kidnapper to set up and prone to failure - especially since we are talking about some homemade stuff slapped together by thugs (and the jamming could be followed itself). And if beating it that way becomes common then people who worry about kidnapping could switch to an always-on mode where it’s the shutdown of the tracking signal that alerts authorities. In a war of technological sophistication, it’s usually the government that trumps the criminals and not the other way around, especially in a crime as thuggish as kidnapping.
They wouldn’t, unless a loved one reported something suspicious, I suppose. Or maybe after a certain amount of time if not reestablished.
Even if a certain pattern of behaviors triggered a flag (not unlike the spooky algorithms credit card companies employ) for the authorities to respond to.
This is starting to sound like the beginnings of a Phillip K. Dick-esque novel
If kidnapping has gotten so bad that criminals are building jammers and faraday cages to haul people off with and confine them, they’ll probably be taking a “better safe than sorry” view.
