Big (hic) Brother is watching...

“Put It On the Tab
Wednesday, January 19, 2005

There's a bar in Scotland where everyone could soon know your name — and everything else about you.

Bar Soba (search), an ultra-hip Asian fusion bar and restaurant in Glasgow, is offering regulars a "digital wallet" — a microchip implanted in the upper arm that transmits unique personal information to a radio receiver on the premises.

The size of a grain of rice and implanted by a medical professional, the chip guarantees entrance to the bar on crowded nights and keeps track of your bar tab, as well as other relevant information.

"By the time you walk through the door to the bar, your favorite drink is waiting for you and the bar staff can greet you by name," Brad Stevens, owner of the venue, told The Observer of London.

The concept's already caught on with customers at two trendy joints in Barcelona, Spain, and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

"The main benefit is that you can go out without having to carry a wallet, which can get easily lost in a nightclub," said Steve van Soest, one of more than 100 people "chipped" by the Baja Beach Club (search) in Barcelona.


Stevens of Bar Soba acknowledges there are risks involved.

"There is a danger that, if a person's not carrying cash, they could just keep on drinking," he admitted. "But we're looking at ways of setting a limit on how much can be spent."

Privacy advocates are understandably alarmed.

"The chip contains your name and ID number and, as this could be read remotely without your knowledge, that is already too much information," a spokesman for NoTags (search), a British group dedicated to fighting the spread of such chips, told the Daily Telegraph of London.

Barcelona club-goer van Soest had no such qualms.

"It would be great if this catches on and you could put all your personal details and medical records on it," he told the Observer. "If I was involved in an accident, doctors could simply scan me and find out my blood group and any allergies."



First story”

“I'd rather not get into a bar than have one of those implants.”

“Looking for investors for my new venture.
In the near future, there will be a great need for a service to scan people. Not to gleam info from them, but to make sure nobody else is. That is right... I see a future where G-men will slip a grain of rice into your person. This grain will transmit not only your location, but what you verbally communicate. Your personal home scanner will detect any "Rice" you may be transporting.
Protect yourself from the future by investing now!!! hehehe”

“I thought everyone already had a "personal home scanner." ;-)”