Okay, I also assumed that chip had a library computer/encyclopedia function (not that my mc would have trusted that “knowledge” either, but since they are asking him to be a prince without the years or even decades it takes to educate one it would have made some sense). If the chip really was a protection measure in that it would not be as easy to take away the mc’s means of communication as just ripping off the locket.
That is always a risk, which is why my mc fully intends to ask multiple sources hopefully from different factions and allegiances the same questions and compare the answers. You are right that it is a risk and a problem but it at least is a risk and problem that could be managed to a certain extent, depending on the mc’s access to varied and diverse sources of the same information.
It is also why my mc is likely to insist on crash course in at least two alien languages (which would probably still be on the low side for someone of his supposed role and station who might normally be expected to know at least half a dozen, if not more given the advanced state of the aliens. But at this moment more than two would overwhelm him, which is why it is imperative the second one is of his choice and probably not going to be a choice his “dad” and the elites like very much)… But you are right that he remains potentially vulnerable and far too easy to manipulate until he masters them.
Like I said above my mc would still take it with a very big grain of salt and not really trust its contents until he verifies its key statements through a variety of independent sources, but it would be a start at least.
That is certainly the default assumption my mc is operating under, given his current circumstances. Unless and until he can start verifying things from independent sources.
Which is why, once he starts “cooperating” he would consider it imperative to figure out a way to meet with ordinary citizens and the ambassadors/envoys of the opposing side and other powers and assuming something like it exists the Federation/Union/Space Un representatives, regardless of what his dad and the other elites might think of it.
The drawbacks being that it is easily taken away and being functionally illiterate makes it nearly impossible to function in a modern government, let alone an advanced alien one, which would double the already sky high priority of learning to read at least two alien languages for my mc.