Over the past week, news of Wisconsin company Three Square Market (32M) offering to implant its employees with a RFID microchip the size of a grain of rice has quickly gone viral. The chip functions as an NFC-powered multi-purpose key/credit card/identification tool that the company sees as the future. 32M might not be wrong about that, but this is not how our chipped future will or should happen.
32M is a Wisconsin company that sells "micro market technology" running over 2,000 kiosks in break rooms and other locations worldwide. The chips that at least 50 company employees will receive on August 1 will allow them to make purchases at 32M's own break room market, so it sure seems to be an alpha test of a potential product offering as much as it is an unusual perk.
"We see this as another payment and identification option that not only can be used in our markets but our other self-checkout/self-service applications that we are now deploying which include convenience stores and fitness centers," said 32M COO Patrick McMullan.
Employees will also be able to use the chip, implanted between the thumb and index finger, to open doors, use copy machines, log into computers, share business cards and store health information.
"Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc." commented 32M CEO, Todd Westby.
Much has been made in the coverage of this story of the implications of walking around with an employer-owned chip in your body, and for good reason. While an RFID chip doesn't provide a record of all your movements, like say, your smartphone can, it could easily provide enough data to a nosey or unethical supervisor to give any employee pause.
But before throwing shade at 32M, it's important to keep in mind that the company's chip program is voluntary and directly related to its product offerings.
Still, this is not at all how the roll-out of a future in which technology becomes more integrated into our biology should go.
Clearly, it's imperative for any individual who values their privacy and basic agency to own everything that goes into their body. I can imagine a future in which there's plenty of pressure from employers to have chips like the ones 32M is offering implanted, even if it's technically voluntary.
So it's important to set another standard as soon as possible, which should be individual ownership and control over all implants, not to mention widespread literacy on what they can do and how they work.
Fortunately, the whole world is going freelance, so we'll probably all have to pay for our own chips anyway.
