Damn Scary Precedent

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

You couldn't pay me enough to let my employer put a microchip in me that will undoubtably then be able to construct an entire log of your day. When did you log into your computer? How many times did you leave it and come back? How many times did you use the bathroom? Exactly how long was your break? What did you buy from the snack machines? Then if it actually becomes an accepted thing and more people start using it for more things, that shit will be used to track your entire life. Just a step away from Minority Report face scanning.

I'm not a big conspiracy guy, but that doesn't mean I can't look at something an immediately see how badly someone will eventually abuse it if allowed. Just look at Samsung smart TVs.

You know what else has RFID installed in it? Cattle.


http://www.techrepublic.com/article/three-square-market-becomes-first-us-company-to-offer-implanted-microchips-to-all-employees/

Quote:Employees at Three Square Market (32M) will soon be getting a tech upgrade: Biochips, imbedded in their hands. The company will become the first in the US to offer implanted microchip technology to all employees, essentially replacing ID badges and allowing users to open doors, log in to computers, and make purchases in the break room.

32M expects about 50 staff members to be voluntarily chipped at company headquarters in River Falls, WI on August 1, according to a press release. The chips will be implanted between an employee's thumb and forefinger underneath the skin, in a process that only takes seconds, the release noted.

The company is partnering with BioHax International, based in Sweden, to provide the RFID chips to employees. The chips use near-field communications (NFC)—the same tech used in contactless credit cards and mobile payment systems.

Employees will be able to scan their chips to make purchases in the office break room, open doors, operate copy machines, log into computers, unlock phones, share business cards, store medical information, and act as payment at other RFID terminals, 32M CEO, Todd Westby said in the press release. "Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc," Westby said.

While working with operators in Europe, 32M came across BioHax International and its chipped employees.

"We see chip technology as the next evolution in payment systems, much like micro markets have steadily replaced vending machines," Westby said in the release. "As a leader in micro market technology, it is important that 32M continues leading the way with advancements such as chip implants."

While this is the first time US employees will have the opportunity to be chipped company-wide, 32M isn't the first to explore this technology. Swedish biohacker Hannes Sjöblad implants microchips into employees' hands to make it easier for them to access data and gain entry to company buildings.

"The international market place is wide-open and we believe that the future trajectory of total market share is going to be driven by who captures this arena first," 32M COO Patrick McMullan said in the release. "Europe is far more advanced in mobile and chip technology usage than the U.S. and we are thrilled with the growth opportunity this enhancement will bring to us."



The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers

1. 32M will become the first US company to offer all of its employees implanted microchips on a voluntary basis.

2. Employees will be able to scan their chips to make purchases in the office break room, open doors, operate copy machines, log into computers, unlock phones, share business cards, store medical information, and act as payment at other RFID terminals.

3. Europe is more advanced in mobile and chip technology than the US, but the market will likely continue to grow worldwide.

[CageTheBengal]

Yeah I'm not into conspiracies either but this is creepy.

I think we'd be better off if the advancements in technology that have a bigger impact get reviewed and discussed more. We implement things like this and deal with the results later instead of trying to have some foresight and seeing how this might effect our future. We have a long history of doing it and it won't stop now.

We used to sell heroin and morphine out of the Sears catalogs back in the day as a cure all medicine. Another good example of something that needs to be reviewed thoroughly before exposing it to the public.

If there is money to be made all of that falls to the wayside though.

[Benton]

Quote:"We see chip technology as the next evolution in payment systems, much like micro markets have steadily replaced vending machines," Westby said in the release. "As a leader in micro market technology, it is important that 32M continues leading the way with advancements such as chip implants."

I had to google "micro markets." It sounds like it's mostly a marketing move. Unknown company in virtually unknown industry needs to generate a buzz, so they do something weird.

It's like the betting company that bought Virgin Mary Toast for stupid amounts of money. They got a nice market advertising campaign out of it.

That said, any employee who lets his company put a chip into him is an idiot.

[BengalHawk62]

But look at the possibilities that open up.  If you have a medical emergency, all the paramedics have to do is upload your information that is stored in your chip.  you never have to get your wallet out again.  just erotically caress the vending machine and a pop will fall out, just like a baby.  You never have to log into your computer again.  Just lick the screen and it automatically opens up. 


Blah, blah, blah.  The biblical prophesy of the devil's mark is upon us.




I'm gonna be the first to blame trumpets for this one.  Dino- back off, I already done it!    

[GMDino]

I don't know if it was on this incarnation of the board but wasn't there a guy who quit and sued his employer (and won) because he refused to have a number that he had to enter to check in and out of work?  He was afraid it was the beginning of the "mark of the beast".

[CKwi88]

It is very interesting to think about, but I do believe that the integration of technology with our physical bodies is the inevitable destination of the path that computers and smart devices has us on.

The next decades of advancement in these fields could be crazy.

[Au165]

It is coming, but it will posses many of the same information security issues we have today. Credit cards using near field tech can be skimmed without ever making contact with the card. This will surely be a concern with someones hand just flopping around as they walk.

[Millhouse]

(07-25-2017, 11:14 AM)CKwi88 Wrote: It is very interesting to think about, but I do believe that the integration of technology with our physical bodies is the inevitable destination of the path that computers and smart devices has us on.

The next decades of advancement in these fields could be crazy.

[CageTheBengal]

I was watching a news story (It might have been 60 minutes.) about how they are well on their way to inventing prosthetic hands that can feel.

It won't be long before people are half human and half android basically.

That's pretty cool though imo. Once we start getting into A.I. though that's when things get dicey.

[Benton]

(07-25-2017, 12:56 PM)Au165 Wrote: It is coming, but it will posses many of the same information security issues we have today. Credit cards using near field tech can be skimmed without ever making contact with the card. This will surely be a concern with someones hand just flopping around as they walk.

Imagine if they start sending you targeted advertising like they do with your credit card/web browsing info. Your hand goes to McDonald's, you get a Facebook message for a Big Mac coupon. Scratch your head a lot? BAM, Head & Shoulders emails you.

I see direct marketing for hand lotion and Kleenex companies skyrocketing.

[Matt_Crimson]

What do you think of microchips being implanted inside of you? Would you do it? And do you think it should be mandatory?

Quote:   

Some feared hackers and the devil. Others got microchipped.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/01/some-feared-hackers-and-the-devil-others-got-microchipped/?utm_term=.5c678c94c920



RIVER FALLS, Wis. — The bearded body piercer with tattooed forearms tells Sam Bengtson to take a deep breath, and then he plunges in the needle, implanting a microchip into the software engineer's hand.  “That was nothing,” Bengston says, as the piercer smooths a bandage onto his skin.
The radio-frequency identification tag now lodged between his index finger and thumb will allow Bengtson to open doors and log onto his computer at work with a wave. His employer paid for the device, which costs about $300, and threw a “chip party” for employees at its headquarters Tuesday, handing out blue T-shirts that say: “I got chipped.”

About 50 employees agreed to be implanted with the devices. Three Square Market, which designs software for vending machine, hopes to soon launch a global microchip-reader business, marketing the technology to other firms. But first they have to conquer reservations about the devices. Patrick McMullan, the chief operating officer, said he and another executive learned about Biohax, the Swedish start-up that produces the implants, about six months ago during a business trip to Europe. The microchips are about as big as a grain of rice, and enable the wearer to perform various tasks such as entering a building or making a payment. The company already uses similar proximity readers in its vending machines. Shoppers can tap a credit card and walk away with a soda. With microchips, McMullan said, the company could take their products to the next level of convenience — and beyond the vending industry.

The tiny microchip is filmed by a member of the media. (Tim Gruber for The Washington Post) 
“If we’re going to work on this, we need to know how it works,” he said. “I can’t go research technology that we’re not willing to use ourselves.”
As of now, implants are practically useless in the United States. But Three Square Market is betting that will soon change. People in Sweden can already use the chips as train tickets, the company said. Bengston, the engineer, said he doesn’t feel like a guinea pig. His information is encrypted, he said, which means it’s more secure in his hand than on, say, a cellphone. He plans to build an application that will enable him to start his Toyota Tundra with a touch. If the program works, he said, the company could sell it. “I want to have that in about a week,” he said with a grin.


Microchips aren't new. Pets and livestock are tagged. Deliveries, too. Chips that pierce human skin, however, have a history of fizzling out on American soil.
Technology analysts fear the chips could ease the way for hackers. Some churchgoers say the devices violate their religious beliefs. Stapled on a tree outside the company’s lot was a flyer that said: *WARNING* Microchipping employees. Sixteen years ago, Applied Digital Solutions, a company in Delray Beach, Fla., introduced a microchip called VeriChip that could be implanted in human arms to store medical records. Doctors said at the time that they hoped to trace a patient’s history with a hand scanner — a useful ability, the company asserted, if someone is unconscious or confused.

A reporter gets a microchip embedded under her skin during Three Market Square's “chip party” on Tuesday. (Tim Gruber for The Washington Post)
But while VeriChip won approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2004, the device never caught on with consumers. Some people expressed privacy concerns: Could they be tracked? By 2008, the company stopped making the device, citing low sales. However, VeriChip motivated states to consider the legal quandaries a future with microchips could present. After the device hit the market, Wisconsin outlawed mandatory implants. Marlin Schneider, the former state representative who introduced the measure, said in 2005 that he wanted to get ahead of employers requiring workers to get chipped, or prisons forcing inmates to do the same.


“Eventually, people will find reasons why everyone should have these chips implanted,” Schneider told reporters at the time. California, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma also banned tagging without consent, with lawmakers asserting the chips could lead to serious privacy breaches, such as covert monitoring.
Michael Zimmer, a professor of information studies at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, said it’s hard to predict how hackers could evolve to exploit seemingly impenetrable devices. “Often what appears to be simple technologies,” he said, “shift into becoming infrastructures of surveillance used for purposes far beyond what was originally intended.” Workers have resisted similar technology because of their religious beliefs. Two years ago, a coal miner in West Virginia, backed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, won a discrimination case in federal court after his employer mandated a hand scanner to clock in.


The coal miner said he was forced to retire after declining to use the scanner, which he believed was the “mark of the beast” — a sign of evil and the “end times,” discussed in the Bible, that is said to appear on the right hand. He was awarded $150,000 in damages. A Three Market Square employee demonstrates how her microchip allows her to buy a drink. (Tim Gruber for The Washington Post)


Cordarrel Lyrek, 28, feels the same way about Three Market Square’s microchips. The Minneapolis resident, who makes T-shirts for a living, said he made the 45-minute drive Monday to River Falls to hang protest posters on trees and business windows. A Christian, he put his phone number on the flier, hoping people would call to talk about God. “It says in the Bible that’s a sign of the beast,” Lyrek said. “But it’s not only about that. It’s about invading people's privacy.”
McMullan, the Three Square Market executive, wondered if protesters would storm the company’s property during the chip party. Dozens of people had commented “boycott” on their Facebook page. But none came Tuesday. Under a clear sky, the campus was quiet. Outside the window were stretches of green, cornfields and a Lutheran church that resembles a red barn.


At the nearby dairy farm, Jason Kjos, 51, was feeding his chickens as a yellow cat watched. He was raised Catholic and heard about the company’s plans on the news. Kjos didn’t care about it. Automation had made his life easier. Maybe microchips would help his neighbors. “It’s technology,” he said. “Technology moves at the speed of light. Whatever we think is crazy or impossible is either already happening or in development.”

[CKwi88]

I think this was discussed in a thread a while back.

Integrating technology with our bodies is the inevitable next step. It will be resisted, and at times rightfully so, but I feel like this is where we are headed either way. None of us will probably be alive to see it implemented universally though.

[GMDino]

(08-27-2017, 10:44 AM)Matt_Crimson Wrote: What do you think of microchips being implanted inside of you? Would you do it? And do you think it should be mandatory?

I have a hard time with this.  Technology should be there to help us but we all know some greedy, power hungry ahole will try to use it just to better themselves at our expense.

But I don't see any reason it should be mandatory.

I also don't understand people who worry about it because of the devil.

[Matt_Crimson]

(08-27-2017, 10:49 AM)CKwi88 Wrote: I think this was discussed in a thread a while back.

Integrating technology with our bodies is the inevitable next step. It will be resisted, and at times rightfully so, but I feel like this is where we are headed either way. None of us will probably be alive to see it implemented universally though.

Oh, late to the party I see.

Yeah I''m honestly not sure when I see this becoming a wide spread thing. Part of me says I'll be dead by that time, but then the other part of me says that the rise of technology is unpredictable and what might seem like a tomorrow thing could really be today.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(08-27-2017, 10:49 AM)CKwi88 Wrote: I think this was discussed in a thread a while back.

Integrating technology with our bodies is the inevitable next step. It will be resisted, and at times rightfully so, but I feel like this is where we are headed either way. None of us will probably be alive to see it implemented universally though.

http://thebengalsboard.com/Thread-Damn-Scary-Precedent

[Yojimbo]

(08-27-2017, 10:49 AM)CKwi88 Wrote: I think this was discussed in a thread a while back.

Integrating technology with our bodies is the inevitable next step. It will be resisted, and at times rightfully so, but I feel like this is where we are headed either way. None of us will probably be alive to see it implemented universally though.

There's been a book and documentary made about this called "The Transcendent Man". His prediction (and his predictions about technology are often correct) is a full integration of technology into the human body by 2045. I don't know how old you are, but I'm still planning on being alive by then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendent_Man

[SunsetBengal]

Threads merged to reduce redundancy.

[*Nately120*]

Why don't you want your employer chipping you? Got something to hide?