How Can I Have an Illegal RFID Implant Removed?

I believe I was illegally given an implant. This was not of my consent. I do believe that this was for experimental purposes only. I wish to have this removed ASAP. This was illegally done to me; how do I know where the kill command would be? How do I turn this completely off? I don't have much information, but hopefully you do. I wish to be around for my family for a long time. It doesn't let up. Thank you.

—Riseandshine41

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Riseandshine41,

I am sorry to hear that you are suffering ill effects, and that you're able to find a medical professional able to help you with that. That being said, RFID is a short-range technology that allows someone to read a tag and capture its unique serial number. That short range is key here, as there would be no point in embedding a tag in a person's body, since you would need to be within a few inches of that person, 24-7, to constantly read the number and monitor their activities. As such, I am confident you do not have an illegally implanted RFID transponder in your body. There would be very little value in anyone putting such a device there.

A transponder planted in your brain would likely not be readable—and even if it were, it would be readable from only a couple inches above your skull. There would be no point in putting a device in your head that could only be interrogated from that distance. You'd see someone if they were always present and holding a reader near your head. In any case, if such a device existed, there would be no safe way for you to destroy or remove it yourself. You would need to have it surgically removed, though I suspect a doctor would probably refuse to perform what would be an unnecessary surgery.

I wish I could help you, but the truth is, RFID and other short-range technologies would not be viable for insertion into a human brain as a tracking device. The skull's density and thickness, the high moisture levels in human body tissue, and the fact that anyone trying to read said device would need to be near you at all times—all of these limitations, and more, would negate the likelihood of a party using RFID for such a nefarious purpose.

While uninformed conspiracists, unhinged political figures, and unresearched movies and TV shows have promoted the idea that RFID is tracking the masses via illegally inserted implants, it's not true. Your credit card, debit card, cell phone, car, GPS device, laptop, iPad, Apple Watch, Fitbit and other technologies in common usage would be a good deal more useful in tracking you. In fact, many of them are tracking you.

RFID is primarily used by businesses as a supply chain and logistics technology, for asset tracking, inventory management, warehousing, order fulfilment and other such purposes. There are many other uses (airline baggage tracking, for example), and yes, RFID implants do exist (such as those used for monitoring pets and livestock). But for tracking people's movements via a device inserted in their brain without their consent? No.

Using RFID as a brain-implanted tracking device would be doomed to failure. Any company, government or individual with an understanding of how RFID works—which would be required of anyone implanting an RFID device in someone else's head, after all, whether legally or illegally—would realize how futile the effort would be, and thus would not bother. It'd be like trying to use a plastic spoon to cut down a tree, or a piece of tissue paper to store water—it would be a poor choice of technology for those use cases, when other technologies (chainsaws and plastic bottles, respectively) exist that could do the job far more effectively.

I wish you all the best, but I'm afraid there's nothing more I can offer in the way of help, other than to suggest reading Claire Swedberg's article on this topic (see RFID Surveillance Less Threat than Perception). See also: Mark Roberti's response to a prior question, "How Can I Safely Kill RFID Implants in My Brain?"

Rich Handley
Managing Editor
RFID Journal