Tech Company Microchipped Some Employees, And They Seem To Love It

Three Square Market is a technology company (based in River Falls, Wisconsin) that decided to conduct a little “experiment.” Last year, it microchipped 50 employees. You know– just to make their day at work a little easier. Need a drink and can’t find your wallet? It’s fine. Swipe your hand. Need to get into the office or log into your computer? Use the microchipped hand.

The president of the company, Patrick McMullan, said he got the idea of chipping employees after going on a business trip in Sweden, where they’re apparently really into that sort of thing. So he decided to bring it to his company. The microchips are about the size of a grain of rice, and so far, about 80 of 250 employees have them.

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 (McMullan’s chip includes identifying information to grant him access to the building, as well as some basic medical information, for instance).

McMullan said a few people have had their chips removed, but that was more due to the fact that they stopped working at the company.

Sam Bengtson, a software engineer, says he uses his chip 10 to 15 times a day. At this point, swiping his hand over an RFID reader plugged into his computer is no different from typing in his password on a keyboard, he says.

Steve Kassekert, vice president of finance, is so used to using his hand to pay for soda at work that he was annoyed when the RFID reader on the vending machine went down a couple of months ago.

“It’s just become such a part of my routine,” he says.

This freaks me out beyond belief. We’re talking about your EMPLOYER chipping you. It might sound convenient, but is it REALLY that difficult to remember your key card or wallet? In the very least, chip out a bracelet and wear that on your arm. Why anyone would want a chip– a chip for the sole purpose of “convenience”– injected into their hand is beyond me. Then again, you’re talking to someone who’s freaked out by her own iPhone. I swear, lately, I’ll mention something in passing (a new coffee shop or something) and hours later it’ll pop up in my feed as a “suggested” ad. It freaks me out. It’s LISTENING.

Anyway, I just found this entire “experiment” creepy and fascinating. I would never do it. I’m old school. I’d rather risk forgetting my password, wallet or keys. A microchip sounds intrusive and creepy. No thanks.

What say you?

h/t Technology Review