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October 12, 2006
Retinal Scans can reveal sensitive health and lifestyle info
The eyes are the window to the soul, say the poets, but they may also reveal some very private information about you. Researchers have developed a scanning device that takes photos of the retina, then analyzes them for everything from medical conditions like high blood pressure and AIDS to drug use and pregnancy.
According to the article:
Many health problems show up in your eyes, potentially creating non-invasive tests for everything from cocaine to sickle cell anemia. Cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs can make the OSI a non-invasive drug test. Infectious diseases such as malaria, AIDS, syphilis, Lyme disease, and chicken pox all show up in your eyes. Interestingly enough, so does pregnancy–no more pink lines.... Even genetic diseases like leukemia, lymphoma, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and sickle cell anemia affect the eyes. In addition, your eyes show signs of chronic health conditions like bleeding or clotting disorders, congestive heart failure, arthrosclerosis, and high and low cholesterol. Other poisons like botulism manifest themselves in the eyes, too.Source: Retinal Scans Do More Than Let You In The Door
Physorg.com, August 31, 2006
http://www.physorg.com/news6134.html
The next time someone proposes retinal scanning as a security measure, say, at an airport terminal or for access to a job site, be sure to point out the potentially invasive nature of such scans.
-Katherine Albrecht
Posted by Katherine Albrecht at October 12, 2006 8:12 AM
Comments
Hi, just thought you might be interested in this BBC article posted today.
"Air passengers 'could be tagged'"
Posted by: Paul at October 12, 2006 10:38 AM
I am a member of the Privium scheme, as a very frequent traveller through Schiphol I submitted myself to the program for the sake of efficiency and convenience.
So I have a smartcard with an ID number on it and I can pass directly through immigration and have a dedicated security check line. On a bad day I has saved me an hour and I have "just" made many flight because of it that I would have normally missed.
Now I know that the smartcard contains nothing more than an ID number, the actual point recognition model for the Iris, is held server side. The technology is over 5 years old and would not have been build to examine the more detailed characteristics of the eye that is possible now.
However, I am also sure that there is a fair chance the a very high resolution source image was taken on signing up and is also stored.
I do find it hard to balance my deep mistrust of RFID (not the technology but a possible future human intent) and the like with my selfish capitulation to retanal scanning. If I am OK with things like this what chance do the rest of society have.
Posted by: Paul at October 13, 2006 10:19 AM
I am surprised at the level of effort you are going to in order to "expose" the evil RFID tag. If you did your homework you would know that a tag (a set of numbers) is worthless without the associated data base. It's basically the same situation as someone reading your license plate. Without the DOT data base at their disposal, the numbers are basically worthless.
Like any new technology, there is fear of the unknown. I recall once upon a time when people thought bar codes were inherently evil and were the mark of the beast. Hogwash....the barcodes have improved our purchasing efficiency which speeds up the lines that no one enjoyes standing in.
It is a simple fact, we have too many people in the world and due to this fact, we must develop new ways to control and track assets. You call it 1984, I say it is a neccessary step forward to preserve our security and continue to mamange our society effectively.
Regardless of the technology, evil people will make it do evil things, and the flip side would be people that wish to exploit the technolgies benefits will do so with great success.
RFID is here to stay and with the proper regulatory parameters, it will be a safe, productive tool for our generation.
Posted by: Dave at November 27, 2006 12:31 PM
OMG WE MUST GET RID OF OUR EYES ASAP!
Posted by: Wilhelm Schöppen at January 18, 2007 9:59 PM