Does Anybody Remember Gattaca?

Google announces they are going to offer a search service for your hard drive. Human DNA is mapped and more details are discovered every day. The FDA approves implanting a microchip to contain your health records. It’s news, but is it good news?

Google promises they won’t keep a record of what they find on your drive. The FDA says the information on your health microship will only be available to professionals and can’t be misused. Surely we are all sophisticated enough to realize that all the promises in the world of privacy and protection of information aren’t worth the breath wasted to make them.

I’m not one of those paranoid conspiracy theorist who think Big Brother is constantly out to get them, and I love new technology. But I’m not going to make use of either of these technologies. I’m especially wary of the implanted medical information chip.

Why? First, because if the information is on the chip, it has to be in a database somewhere so it can be encoded to the chip and kept updated. My guess as to who’ll have that database — the Feds. It’s bad enough the amount of medical information that gets shared by health insurance companies. The last thing I want is a government agency who has a database with it! Second, because it would be very easy to encode a DNA profile in this database/chip and track health problems agains the DNA profiles to discover what bits of DNA control what health problems. Medical advancement is possible, but does anybody remember the movie Gattaca?

Then there’s the possibility of putting your financial records on that chip. We’ve all heard that the day is coming when you wave your hand over the chip reader instead of pulling out your credit or debit card. Checks are dead as of the end this month; all of them will now be able to clear instantly, just as your debit card does. So the next logical step is to include your financial info on that chip.

How do I guarantee that my medical information isn’t being recorded when I pay for something or that my financial information isn’t being downloaded by the hospital when I’m checking in for tests? I can’t. And that’s the problem.