Roger Tolces, a private investigator, who specializes in surveillance countermeasures, was the guest on Thursday's show. He outlined a variety of ways in which US citizens' privacy rights have been eroded since the passing of the Patriot Act. "They can throw a switch and listen to all your phone calls," or gain access to your computer, he said, explaining that government or law enforcement no longer has to seek judicial authorization for many kinds of taps.

It becomes a "question of who the real crooks and criminals are," Tolces said as he detailed an astonishing array of electronic harassment devices that he has found evidence for through his work with his clients. Many of these people have told him they feel as though they are being used as guinea pigs in covert experiments. One device, which could also be classified as a non-lethal weapon, is a microwave energy beam, that can "make people hear voices in their head," Tolces said. The voices might be used to direct the subjects to commit suicide, he added. To counteract these beams, he recommended usage of the product Eccosorb, which can absorb microwaves.

Tolces said he has also been able to detect biochips implanted in some of his clients' heads, that could possibly be used as tracking devices. "What I tell my clients to do is to carry a video camera," in order to take pictures of people in the "program" who may be observing their subject. This kind of documentation can also show that clients aren't just imagining the harassment or "going nuts," said Tolces, who will be speaking this July at the Controlled America Conference in Davis, California.

Spotlight on: Biochips

Roger Tolces has assisted victims of electronic harassment which can take place when someone uses an electronic device to invade a person's privacy or property. Biochip implants, which are just beginning to come on the market, have been talked about as a device that could be potentially harmful in that regard. The ingenious chips, about the size of a rice grain, can be embedded under a person's skin by a doctor using a large needle. They contain transmitters which can relay a bounty of information about a person such as their personal identification and medical records.

While there are obvious benefits to the technology, such as accessing vital health information during an emergency or locating a lost or kidnapped person, many are sounding the alarm over the likely loss of privacy. All movements and transactions could be accessed by authorities. Big Brother "knows where you are ALL the time. Privacy- the very concept of privacy—becomes an anachronism," writes columnist Geoff Metcalf. In fact, in one scenario, a company could use subdermal implants to monitor their employees at all times, evaluating where they are and who they were with. Better head back from the water cooler!

Applied Digital Solutions, the makers of VeriChip, have stated they will only sell their chips to companies and persons who can ensure its use is strictly voluntary. "We would never provide it to a company that intended to coerce people to use it," a company VP told Associated Press. Interestingly, the company has been doing some PR to combat the idea held by some Christians that their device is the "mark of the beast," written about in the Bible. They've sent representatives to such shows as The 700 Club to make assurances that their chip doesn't fit the biblical description because it's not visible, as the "mark" is said to be.