I found this to be very terrifying. This article was written in 2002 by Fox News.

"The chip would have realized that the intruder did not have permission take the girl from her home," Cossolotto said.

Digital Angel ($399 plus $29.95 a month) is a wearable GPS device that indicates when a person has moved beyond certain preset boundaries. The alerts may be sent to cell phones, computers or pagers.

"The chip has an alarm button and is hidden from any perpetrators," Cossolotto said.

Another up-and-coming product is Safe Force ($280), a "black box" for cars similar to the flight data recorder used on planes that monitors drivers' performance.

Safe Force, made by Calif.-based Road Safety, operates through a series of audio warnings that sound when a driver speeds, starts hard, breaks hard, or generally drives aggressively â?? and don't go away until the driver changes his behavior.

"It's like being able to sit next to your teenager every time they drive," Road Safety CEO Larry Selditz said.

Safe Force will be available in November; a GPS add-on is in development.

GPS, however, has its limitations. Buildings can impede signals and the technology is subject to the problems of cell phones and computers.

Nevertheless, many feel these devices are nothing short of miraculous.

"I've gotten over a thousand enthusiastic e-mails about Safe Force; only two complained about Big Brother invasions of privacy," Selditz said.

One famous parent, America's Most Wanted host John Walsh, whose 6-year-old son was kidnapped and killed in 1981, said GPS could be "lifesaving" on a recent episode of Larry King Live.

"It's a brilliant idea. I wish someone would develop it because, number one, time is crucial when a child is missing and you could locate them by the chip," he said. "And even if you weren't lucky enough to locate them, finding the body is crucial for two things: the ending of the search of the parents and helping with the prosecution of the case."

Other parents were more skeptical.

California resident Gina Brodt said she'd never put anything under her child's skin, but she might have considered using Digital Angel when her daughter was younger.

"I had a little one who liked to run off in the mall," she said. "I might have bought it for her."

Family Circle contributor Annie Pleshette Murphy said teaching kids to police their own behavior is the key to keeping them safe.

"So many of these devices prey on a parent's wish to protect their child 100 percent of the time," she said. "One of the hardest things about being a parent is accepting that you can't do this.

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May 26, 2007
Are microchip implants for offenders inevitable?

Among lots and lots of good new stuff at Corrections Sentencing is a link to this AP story from Oklahoma:

Legislation that would authorize microchip implants in people convicted of violent crimes was sent back to a committee yesterday. This after state House members questioned whether the proposal would violate constitutional civil liberties.

The measure, approved by the Senate, authorizes microchip implants for persons convicted of one or more of 19 violent offenses who have to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence. The tiny electronic implants are commonly used to keep track of pets and livestock, but several House members questioned whether their forced use in people would be unconstitutionally invasive.

As highlighted in this article, a West Palm Beach Alzheimer's care center is talking about placing microchips into its patients; and this article notes that a "deputy with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office has been implanted with a microchip that will give emergency doctors access to his medical information."

I would wager it is only a matter of time before these kinds of technocorrections really take off.

UPDATE: A very helpful reader pointed me to this on-point recent article in one of Ohio State's own journals about human tracking technology. The article is by William Herbert and is entitled "No Direction Home: Will The Law Keep Pace With Human Tracking Technology to Protect Individual Privacy and Stop Geoslavery?" Here is the abstract:

Increasingly, public and private employers are utilizing human tracking devices to monitor employee movement and conduct. Due to the propensity of American labor law to give greater weight to employer property interests over most employee privacy expectations, there are currently few limitations on the use of human tracking in employment. The scope and nature of current legal principles regarding individual privacy are not sufficient to respond to the rapid development and use of human tracking technology. The academic use of the phrase geoslavery to describe the abusive use of such technology underscores its power. This article examines the use of such technology under current federal and state law and suggests potential means for developing greater legal protections against the abusive use of the technology and the intrusion into personal privacy.