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This Company Embeds Microchips in Its Employees, and They Love It (technologyreview.com)
Last August, 50 employees at Three Square Market got RFID chips in their hands. Now 80 have them. From a report: The idea came about in early 2017, president of Three Square Market Patrick McMullan says, when he was on a business trip to Sweden -- a country where some people are getting subcutaneous microchips to do things like enter secure buildings or book train tickets. It's one of very few places where chip implants, which have been around for quite a while, have taken off in some fashion. The chips he and his employees got are about the size of a very large grain of rice. They're intended to make it a little easier to do things like get into the office, log on to computers, and buy food and drinks in the company cafeteria. Like many RFID chips, they are passive -- they don't have batteries, and instead get their power from an RFID reader when it requests data from the chip.
A year into their experiment, McMullan and a few employees say they are still using the chips regularly at work for all the activities they started out with last summer. Since then, an additional 30 employees have gotten the chips, which means that roughly 80 of the company's now 250 employees, or nearly a third, are walking, talking cyborgs. "You get used to it; it's easy," McMullan says. As far as he knows, just two Three Square Market employees have had their chips removed -- and that was when they left the company.
A year into their experiment, McMullan and a few employees say they are still using the chips regularly at work for all the activities they started out with last summer. Since then, an additional 30 employees have gotten the chips, which means that roughly 80 of the company's now 250 employees, or nearly a third, are walking, talking cyborgs. "You get used to it; it's easy," McMullan says. As far as he knows, just two Three Square Market employees have had their chips removed -- and that was when they left the company.
They're not "walking, talking cyborgs". They are just chipped like cats and dogs.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
If your employees aren't loyal, force them to be.
Maybe not but who wants to be the human test case for this?
This is the requirements.
Everyone in the concentration camp will get a chip.
As long as it's voluntary, then more power to 'em. It's not something I would choose, but if they're happy, then I'm happy for them.
It'll be a cold day in hell before I get chipped.
Chips are for pets and property. Get one if you're looking to join the 21st century chattel slavery.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
They have a reader-powered dog door, can go in and out at any time. They love it, I love it, it is a win-win situation.
Good boys!
a corporation inserting an object into their bodies?
Please explain because convenience surely can't be the reason here.
Translation: 170 employees out of 250 told him to take his idea and get buggered.
... in the forehead or in the hand.
Hmmm. Have they attached rfid readers to atm's yet?
I wonder how much there trade secrets are worth?
And traveling around the country on someone else's dime?
KOOL!
Keep your damned chips
I take no responsibility for what I say. Even though I'm never wrong
Where implanted microchips will be so ingrained into society that you must have one in your right hand or on your forehead as your government id to drive your car, or to buy, sell, or perform any other kind of business transaction ---- all the functions of your driver's license, car keys, house keys, debit card terminals, etc, will be implemented so that they use the chip to identify you.
With maybe a slight complication of you type a 3-digit number and push the "Visa" or "Paypal" button to identify which of your credit cards you intend to use for a purchase, etc.
with great big quotes. You don't want to be a spoil sport, do you? Be a team player and get chipped like everyone else.
I'm left thinking of Hijabs and how they're voluntary in a lot of countries, even though there's enormous societal pressure for women to wear them. I've been watching a lot of Genetic Skeptic on youtube, hence the thought train, but there are other examples. Like "indentured servitude" where you sell yourself into slavery or for a slightly less controversial aspect how about standing for the national anthem. There's just lots and lots of things that are technically voluntary but very much not.
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She was a jew.
Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
I'm sure there are a few industries where shoving a microchip under your skin would be "better" than simply wearing a bracelet with the same chip...but, I mean, why implant it? Sure it won't get lost, but seriously. Take some responsibility of your secrets and wear it instead of injecting it semi-permanently. I just don't see the point (aside from the aforementioned few industries).
Give the user the choice to take it off.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Antichrist is here, HAIL SATAN!!!
putting the chip on their company ID badges?
I really don't like having things put in my body that will need to be removed when I rage quit the job. /s
It's just a matter of "convenience" or laziness when you can't even keep track of a lanyard with a badge on it.
RFID bracelets and watches and smart watches should have been a thing long ago. Medical ones exist but they lack RFID. This is an ACTUAL PRACTICAL USE for the watch or wrist band.
Hell, rings with RFID data in them should be the next big thing. wedding rings with wedding photos in them and pointless crap like that... but then everybody must think "Why would I wear anything with data in it because I'm attached to my phone anyway."
Those people too lazy to pull out the phone now just look at their wrist...
Yuppies won't adopt it unless it's in a smart device. But the rest of us would like a dumb watch again if it could contain practical ID and KEY information. I would love to give up my wallet and keychain. Water proof, no battery (solar powered watch) I'd probably never take the thing off... yes it would be like a chip... but I have the FREEDOM to remove it myself. Plus there are STILL risks for those things.
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They CAN be done right, but they NEVER will be. Because humans.
an old meme from Ars Technica I think about a sort of "Trans Humanist" fellow who put a chip in and called him himself a cyborg.
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So what happens when these things become so valuable as payment vehicles they're worth stealing? Plus they broadcast their presence, so thieves can pick you out in a crowd. It's pretty painless to get mugged and hand over your wallet, but what happens when a thief cuts your hand up to pull out the microchip?
Already predicted in Neuromancer:
I don't know the security features of this system, but it sounds like something that can be easily hacked. If you meet someone at a bar and have with a concealed RFID reader, you could get the information of the chip, encode your own chip, and have access to the facilities. With a card on a lanyard, you can at least keep the card in some place safe. And a remote RFID reader can't read it.
Surgery just to start a job (and surgery again when you leave the job?) seems a bit extreme.
which means that roughly 80 of the company's now 250 employees, or nearly a third, are walking, talking cyborgs.
Wha? If this makes you a "cyborg", then a cochlear implant must make you The freakin' Borg ...
And therein lies the path to slavery and servitude...
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
A man has a chip, the gubbamint knows who he is.
A man has two chips, the gubbamint can never be sure.
They need a version of this with a hole in it and a way to coax your body to grow a nerve connecting to it. Then the games can begin!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
One day, while it might not be mandatory, there will be so many advantages in being chipped vs many disadvantages in not being, that it will become essentially mandatory.
That presumes that people would be willing to go along with the action politically. I think that is unlikely to be the end result.
Can you hold on to your quaint sensibilities when being chipped means a fast track to the job you covet?
Probably. I'm certainly willing to take the challenge.
When not being chipped means having to sacrifice time and effort to do what the chipped achieve effortlessly?
My time and effort would be spent lobbying the government to make this an illegal practice. Possibly futile but I doubt I'd be alone.
You might think it would be cool to defy the "system" when you're young and single, but what will you do when you have a family to feed, hmmm?
If you aren't willing to fight for the civil rights of your children then you have no spine whatsoever. I'd fight this tooth and nail so my daughter wouldn't have to deal with it. I have a hard time envisioning a scenario whereby this would be acceptable to me. If I cannot win I'd be willing to move somewhere it isn't a concern.
>> when he was on a business trip to Sweden -- a country where some people are getting subcutaneous microchips to do things like enter secure buildings or book train tickets.
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Leave it to da Svwedish!
Is to institute a government program for an 'optional' personal ID implant chip.
Then mandate that employers must be able to accommodate employee's personal ID as a form of employment identification. Then the implantation part of the chip process would not be left to the employer's discretion. Starting/Leaving a job would not be connected to having an chip implanted/removed. Further more, then you'd be able to use your personal ID implant with more than one business (trains, planes, busses, hospitals, etc).
Leaving it to the discretion of employers to maintain ownship of the chip is not the right way to go about this.
leave the job.
What happens when they have something in their office that is worth a criminal chopping off an employee's hand to get the chip?
It causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
I heard they implant it in your penis. ribbed for her pleasure!
lol, whats the difference between this and tatooing a barcode and using a scanner like 40 years ago?
Will they pay doctor bills if it goes bad for life? Or will you have to use the workers comp system to get them paid?
mark of the beast when the government forces you to have one.
A chip like that only accounts for losing two, maybe three humanity points. So they're all good. Now pacemakers on the other hand...
This signature has Super Cow Powers
Call me the day they have an implant that can function as a music player which I can mentally control, is reasonably safe, and can store a massive library of songs. Some trivial RFID tag to sign into some stuff? I can't imagine that being remotely useful enough to justify the risk, no matter how small.
You can get ID cards and bracelets with QR codes on them today, mostly to hold contact information rather than medical records. RFID ones probably exist too but I don't think paramedics or nurses are normally looking out for them. But if you get into a car accident someone will flip through your personal belongings after you've been admitted and attempt to contact your family.
Within a hospital it is normal for patients to wear disposable bracelet, and RFID patient ID bracelets are now readily available to hospitals. But they are not really usable outside of a hospital and tend to be locked in to a particular vendor or hospital database, rather than something you might wear daily. I think the intention of RFID bracets is to avoid the wrong treatment being given to a patient, rather than to access information in an emergency situation. (database look-ups are slow and not reliable)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
They love it because they implant them into their buttholes
But of course, that is not the reason to do something like that at all. Honest!
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Personally, I think a simple ring is a great idea.
E.C.P.
Slavery is totes a choice gais!!
Nazis are always afraid of the truth, those little cockguzzling faggits.
...or is this a case of "You better pretend to love it, and say that you love it- OR ELSE!" I don't believe for a second that each and every one of those employees 'love' it, and not one thinks otherwise.
Company presidents come up with stupid ideas and justify them all the time by saying nobody objects.
You're the president, you moron. Nobody is going to object to your pet project unless they want to get fired, demoted, or put on the eternal "troublemaker" list.
That is the proportion of that digestive waste material with which they may, as far as I'm concerned, fornicate.
In plainer English, fuck ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of that shit.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
Hah. Got you. There's just this one.
For now... *wink*
I'm laughing at all of the responses which say being chipped is the gateway to giving up all your human rights.
Not because it's false, it's certainly eventual. But...
I'll bet every one of the people who replied with that message carry a cell phone every where they go which is far, far more intrusive than this chip.
Drop your cell phone in the next public water fountain.
The point isn't wether or not it's convenient or enjoyable.
Exterminating the homeless would be convenient. Doesn't mean you should do it.
This is how you sneak into sinister territory "but look how fun, convenient and easy your life could be"
I think grandma would approve modding you down.
Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
Now my employer can track me everywhere I go! This is the best.
Once the security protocols implemented in your RFID implant are obsolete, how do you upgrade it?
For instance, the best the original MIFARE DESfire (not EV1) can do is 3DES. It cost a few pennies to replace a RFID badge by a newer DESfire EV1 that supports AES 128, but an implant?
More likely theyre in fear of their jobs either by speaking out about this bs or from lost business if they do. There is virtually no situation that I can think of where it wouldn't be easier and far less invasive to just use an rfid card or a fingerprint reader. Any company which even offered as an option to embed something in your skin should be told to go fuck itself.
These so-called "trends" tend to follow similar patterns: as soon as enough people are chipped, and that method is used in financial transactions, then everyday activities such as public waste disposal [throwing away a tissue in the street bin] will automatically be billed against the individual via their embedded chips; billings us for virtually everything!
Just a modern version of the Nazi use of tattoos on the left forearm of the Jewish and the Gypsies. Have we as a country thrown out history as a valuable reference, or are we doomed to repeat?
Life is in a state of dynamic equilibrium, it both blows and sucks
What about the sociopathy in the managers and business owners that decided this?
THAT is still left untreated.
because the industrial espionage guys only have to cut a small hole in you to get out the RFID instead of cutting out one of your eyes
The only way I'd be OK with this here in the USA is if this were to be misused, the person misusing the technology (tracking you when not authorized, accessing whatever data is had on you, etc) gets the death penalty. There has to be SEVERE consequences for mis-use of the data gathered if you expect this to take off. IMHO of course.
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