Company set to become first in US to microchip employees
Self-described “body hacker” Jowan Osterlund, of Biohax Sweden, holds a microchip device similar to those implanted in workers at the Epicenter digital innovation business center during a party at the co-working space in Stockholm on March 14. Microchips are being implanted into volunteers to help them open doors and operate office equipment, and it’s become so popular that members of the Epicenter cyborg club hold parties for those with the chips embedded in their hands.
Would you ask an employee to get a microchip implanted in her hand? Sounds invasive and intrusive. But come Aug. 1, one company in Wisconsin will be giving it a try.
Three Square Market — a developer of software used in vending machines — is offering all of its employees the option to get a microchip implanted between the thumb and forefinger. It’s quick, painless and the company will even pick up the $300 fee. And don’t worry — there’s no GPS tracking capability … yet.
The company is expecting 50 of its employees to voluntarily sign up for the implants.
RIVER FALLS, Wis. —
A Wisconsin-based company says that its employees will soon become the first in the nation to have microchips implanted in their skin.
Three Square Market, a vending machine business, says the microchip would be implanted in the skin between a person’s thumb and forefinger. The chips are roughly the same size as a single grain of rice.
"It's the next thing that's inevitably going to happen, and we want to be a part of it," Three Square Market CEO Todd Westby told news media
The ultimate goal is for the device to work as a form of payment in the company’s break room, as well as to allow entry into the building and log onto their company computers.
"We'll come up, scan the item, we’ll hit pay with a credit card, and it's asking to swipe my proximity payment now,” Westby explained. “I'll hold my hand up, just like my cell phone, and it'll pay for my product."
Over 50 employees have already signed up to be implanted with the $300 microchips. Three Square Market is set to pick up the bill for those who have volunteered to microchipped.
None of the company’s employees will be required to get the microchip.
The RFID (Radio Frequency ID) chips would allow those employees who volunteer to participate in the program to open doors, pay for purchases, share business cards, store medical information, pay for stuff at other RFID terminals and login to their computers … all with a wave of the hand.
“Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.,” chief executive Todd Westby wrote in a blog post announcing the program, claiming it would be the first of its kind in the United States.
The program is also meant to be a real-life opportunity for Westby’s company to test and expand the technology for its own products. “We see this as another payment and identification option that not only can be used in our markets but our other self-checkout and self-service applications that we are now deploying, which include convenience stores and fitness centers,” said another company executive.
Three Square Market claims it will be the first company in the United States to implant chips in its employees.
A Swedish organization named Epicenter began doing the same thing earlier this year, and its workers seem to love it. “People ask me, ‘Are you chipped?’ and I say, ‘Yes, why not,’ ” one Epicenter employee said in this CNBC report from April. “And they all get excited about privacy issues and what that means and so forth. And for me it’s just a matter of I like to try new things and just see it as more of an enabler and what that would bring into the future.”
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