Wisconsin Tech Company Microchips Its Workers

This news from the technology sector is either a fulfillment of promises from the futuristic cartoons of your youth or proof that Big Brother has found another way to watch, monitor and track you: A Wisconsin technology company is offering to implant its employees with microchips that will allow them to lift only a finger to order food, open doors, log in to their computers, use fax machines and complete other tasks.

But, hmm, could that same technology be used for privacy-violating purposes by Three Square Market, which is located in River Falls about 300 miles northwest of Milwaukee? The company, of course, says it won’t do that and there’s no GPS software in the chip, which is about the size of a grain of rice and can be easily inserted between the thumb and forefinger in a matter of seconds.

The company expects more than 50 employees to sign up for optional participation in the program, offered under a partnership with Sweden-based BioHax International and its CEO, Jowan Osterland, according to a news release. The workers will get the implant at an Aug. 1 “chip party” at the company’s River Falls headquarters. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Milwaukee Patch, and click here to find your local Wisconsin Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

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Radio-frequency identification, or RFID technology, uses electromagnetic fields to identify electronically stored information. It’s basically the same technology used in contactless credit cards and mobile payments, Three Square Marketing said.

RFID technology has been around for years but was impractical because of the sheer amount of information stored the data tags. Cloud storage and other internet technology developments addressed that problem, but RFID tags are being applied in the “wild west” atmosphere of the internet, where norms and standards aren’t set until technology has taken hold, an expert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.

Some groups may have exaggerated fears about its applications, but RFID technology security concerns aren’t groundless, Sanjay Sarma, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, said in a story on phys.org. He said the same system that allows homeowners to control their furnace thermostats could signal to burglars that they’re gone. In a more extreme example, he said someone with nefarious intents could gain control of a nuclear power plant.

Todd Westby, Three Square Market’s CEO, said in a statement the chip technology is here to stay and will eventually become so standardized that it will replace passports and public transit passes.

That’s already happening in Sweden and other European countries, and Three Square Market said the partnership with BioHax International will give it an edge on U.S. competitors who have been slower to embrace the technology.

Photo courtesy of Three Square Market