The tracking chip is an interesting one. As you could imagine, trying to monitor everyones movements all the time would be problematic as it would be too much information to deal with. If however the tracking was simply recorded, much the same as a game server log, the information could be accessed and checked in relation to a specific incident.

If there was a criminal investigation the police could seek to review the log of movements either of the victim and/or suspects or of all movements into a specific area within a certain time frame. This would not be so much like Big Brother is watching you, as an electronic witness used to provide relevant information about a specific event.

Anyone who has watched Star Trek much would be aware that all crew members are tracked through their badges and also that their vital signs are constantly monitored as well. That is science fiction but science fact is that we are not that far from this sort of technology being available. (not the transporters, just the tracking/monitoring)

Proving your innocence could become as simple as checking the record to prove you were not in the area at the time. Search and rescue could be revolutionised as searchers would know within a few yards (?) where the missing person is and their state of health. Known criminals and escaped prisoners would be unable to evade capture for long as the authorities could find out where they are quickly.

Of course, all this sort of information is highly sensitive and should be protected from abuse by the strictest laws possible. Those laws should be framed to make ongoing surveillance unlawful and checking of records allowed only in relation to specific events.

Let's face it, our governments collect much data about us already, from what library books we borrow to which sites we visit on the internet. Chat rooms and phone lines are monitored in the name of national security. Buy too much of the wrong type of fertiliser and your name may be flagged in some government system. Google bomb making and you can be sure that will raise a flag as well. We accept these things because we believe they are necessary. But if you told someone that this would happen 20 years ago, they might be outraged at this attack on civil liberties.

How do we make best use of the technologies that are becoming available in regard to protecting our societies and how many civil liberties are we prepared to trade off to make those systems work?