Spy-
chip - possibly the scariest technology coming into use right now. They're tiny
chips, some as small as a third of a millimetre, which can be hidden inside objects, packaging and even people, and which give a unique identity symbol if triggered by a scanner. In other words, every banknote, shoe or pair of jeans might have a unique ID allowing anyone with a scanner to track it - the
government could find out your whereabouts and where you bought your clothes, criminals could scan you to find out how much
money you were carrying and ID cards, passports etc could contain
chips which could be scanned from a distance.
Currently being introduced by WalMart in products and packaging, with 100 other companies interested. Euro banknotes might contain the
chips. A version which can be injected in humans, the VeriChip, is now being tested, and several US states including New York are discussing forcibly injecting the chips in homeless people.