A company is asking employees to implant a microchip between their thumb and index finger.
This may sound like a sci-fi movie, but this is really happening at Three Square Market, a tech company in Wisconsin. The small chip is about the size of a grain of rice and will enable the employees to open doors, log onto computers, and buy food in the company cafeteria.
Sounds creepy, right? Not to COO of Three Square Market, Patrick McMullin. He insists that microchip implants are the way of the future: "The international market place is wide open and we believe that the future trajectory of total market share is going to be driven by whoever captures this arena first."
Around 50 employees have already signed up to receive the device. Software engineer Sam Bengston is one of them.“In the next five to 10 years, this is going to be something that isn’t scoffed at so much, or is more normal," Bengtson told the New York Times, "So I like to jump on the bandwagon with these kind of things early, just to say that I have it.”
While this may be a new phenomenon in the U.S., Swedish companies have been microchipping employees for around three years. Three Square Market is working with the Swedish company BioHax to roll out the new technology.
Vice-president of international development, Tony Danna, assured the BBC that the employees would not be tracked. "There is no GPS tracking ability to it," he said "It is really the same thing as the chip that is in your credit card."
If this is really the future, it might be a good time to ask yourself: would you allow your employer to microchip you?
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