Hi, all:

Look what we discovered...

-Katherine
=============================================

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 29, 2004

VERICHIP RFID IMPLANTS IN MEXICAN OFFICIALS OVERSTATED
Dozens of news outlets unwittingly repeated error, says CASPIAN

News reports earlier this year indicated that 160 employees in the
Mexican Attorney General's Office had been implanted with Verichip RFID
devices. New information indicates that only 18 individuals received
the
device, said Katherine Albrecht, Founder and Director of CASPIAN
(Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering).

"Our concern is that dozens of news outlets have repeated the inflated
number, which has reached the level of an urban legend," Albrecht
observed. "I myself have repeated the erroneous figure in several media
interviews, and I want to set the record straight."

Albrecht stumbled upon the discrepancy while following up on the story
this fall. "I contacted the Attorney General's office to get some
additional information on the chipping. A foreign press official sent
me
a transcript of a Televisa Mexican television interview with an IT
executive from the Attorney General's office. In the interview, he
clearly states that only 18 employees were chipped."

Albrecht, fluent in Spanish, translated the interview and later
followed
up to verify its accuracy. Since her discovery, several reporters have
independently verified that the Attorney General's office places the
official figure at 18. Albrecht's translation of the interview is
posted
at the organization's www.spychips.com website.

"Even Applied Digital Solutions, the creator of the VeriChip, cites the
incorrect figure on their website. We have tried to contact the company
to alert them to this situation, but they have not returned our calls,"
said Albrecht.

================================================== ===================
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
================================================== ===================

The Evidence: Interview Excerpts
================================

A full transcript of the interview with Marco Huitron of the Mexican
Attorney General's Office is available on CASPIAN's website:
http://www.spychips.com/press-releas...anslation.html

Here are a few salient excerpts:

TELEVISA: In the case at hand, how many PGR officials are we talking
about who have this implanted or are going to get it implanted?

JUSTICE OFFICIAL: The Access Control System, the identification to
access restricted areas, is only for government officials, there are a
total of 18 chips that we have for that purpose.
...

TELEVISA: Sir, then only 18 officials of the PGR have this chip and
they
are the only ones who can access the Information Center?

JUSTICE OFFICIAL: This chip is for access control, it is only used by
18
government employees.
...

JUSTICE OFFICIAL: The system consists of sensors to read the chips, the
18 chips that are implanted in the government employees, and a control
system that allows them to be enabled or disabled.

================================================== ===================
The press has widely reported the 160 figure
================================================== ===================

The following are just some of the publications reporting that 160
members of the Mexican Attorney General's staff were implanted with the
VeriChip RFID device. (We at CASPIAN repeated the error ourselves in a
July press release.)

* Washington Post
* USA Today
* Associated Press
* MSNBC
* Wired
* CNN
* Business Week
* EE Times
* Newsday
* Investor's Business Daily
* InformationWeek
* New Scientist
* ComputerWorld
* San Jose Mercury News
* Dallas Morning News
* San Diego Union Tribune
* The Independent (London)
* Cleveland Plain Dealer
* InfoWorld
* Atlanta Journal and Constitution
* TechWeb
* Slashdot
* Portsmouth Herald
* Houston Chronicle
* Daily Record, Glasgow, Scotland
* FreeRepublic
* CCN (Canadian Corporate News)
* TechNation
* The Register UK
* Security Pipeline
* Cryptogon
* PC Plus
* The New American
* Dubuque Telegraph Herald
* Times Colonist (British Columbia)
* Calgary Herald
* Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
* Daily Record
* IT News
* RFID News
* RFID Gazette
* IT News (sponsored by Microsoft)
* Daily Wireless
* CASPIAN press release

================================================== ===================
VeriChip maker, Applied Digital Solutions, boasts inaccurate figure
================================================== ===================

Applied Digital Solutions, the maker of the VeriChip, prominently
features several press accounts containing the 160 figure on its
websites. Three such stories currently appear on the company's VeriChip
website:

http://www.4verichip.com/nws_08022004.htm
http://www.4verichip.com/nws_07262004.htm
http://www.4verichip.com/nws_07152004.htm

================================

Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN)
is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes
since 1999. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30
countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing
strategies that invade their privacy and to encourage privacy-conscious
shopping habits across the retail spectrum.

For more information, see:
http://www.spychips.com and http://www.nocards.org

================================