"So whilst I can see the possible benefits of such technology to Governments and businesses, I'm not so sure that those benefits would really help members of the general public all that much"

According to most religionists, people who don't believe in god and the devil and heaven and hell have no reason to be good. These chips and those who monitor them become god, those who cheat and commit crimes become the devil, and being monitored accelerates one fate and makes it heaven or hell on Earth. Why wait until after death to know where your soul will reside?

If you have a smart phone or a tablet of any kind or a social networking page on Facebook, you're already halfway there, aren't you? I have none of these things, but the USA's Homeland Security spies have decided to monitor my Internet credit card purchases and report them to a US state in which I haven't resided for more than 15 years -- I'm not even a US resident any longer and haven't been for 15 years. That's a bit of hell. But it helps me know who my enemies are.