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More Companies Plan To Implant Microchips Into Their Employees' Hands (engadget.com) 337

Posted by EditorDavid from the in-the-chips dept.
"British companies are planning to microchip some of their staff in order to boost security and stop them accessing sensitive areas," reports the Telegraph. "Biohax, a Swedish company that provides human chip implants, told the Telegraph it was in talks with a number of UK legal and financial firms to implant staff with the devices."

An anonymous reader quote Zero Hedge: It is really happening. At one time, the idea that large numbers of people would willingly allow themselves to have microchips implanted into their hands seemed a bit crazy, but now it has become a reality. Thousands of tech enthusiasts all across Europe have already had microchips implanted, and now a Swedish company is working with very large global employers....

For security-obsessed corporations, this sort of technology can appear to have a lot of upside. If all of your employees are chipped, you will always know where they are, and you will always know who has access to sensitive areas or sensitive information. According to a top official from Biohax, the procedure to implant a chip takes "about two seconds...." Of course once this technology starts to be implemented, there will be some workers that will object. But if it comes down to a choice between getting the implant or losing their jobs, how many workers do you think will choose to become unemployed?
Engadget provides more examples, pointing out that in 2006 an Ohio surveillance firm had two employees in its secure data center implant RFIDs in their triceps, and that just last year 80 employees at Three Square Market in Wisconsin had chips implanted into their hands. Their article also hints that "no one's thinking about the inevitable DEF CON talk 'Chipped employees: Fun with attack vectors'"

Dr. Stewart Southey, the Chief Medical Officer at Biohax International, describes the technology as "a secure way of ensuring that a person's digital identity is linked to their physical identity," with a syringe injecting the chip directly between their thumb and forefinger to enable near-field communication. But what do Slashdot's readers think?

Would you let your employer microchip you?
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More Companies Plan To Implant Microchips Into Their Employees' Hands More

More Companies Plan To Implant Microchips Into Their Employees' Hands

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  • Id chop it off... (Score:5, Funny)

    by wolfheart111 ( 2496796 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @07:41PM (#57665004)
    and attach a chainsaw to it.

  • Nope ! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Voice of satan ( 1553177 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @07:46PM (#57665044)

    "Would you let your employer microchip you?"

    No. And i would call my lawyer to see if i can negotiate some sort of compensation for being fired although i doubt i would get any. I probably would get another similarly paid job afterwards but after a long negotiation period. I would have to live and eventually finish that mortgage on savings between jobs.

    • Re:Nope ! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Harlequin80 ( 1671040 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @08:48PM (#57665324)

      I'd be amazed if this could be enforced by a UK employer anyway. The UK has quite strong employee protection laws, and requiring a surgical procedure to remain employed would be almost unenforceable.

      It's very different to the US.

      Here in Aus the idea would go down like a turd in a punch bowl and would be outlawed as soon as a Labor govt was in even if the LNP were stupid enough not to stop it themselves.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hoofie ( 201045 )

        I'd agree that there is zip chance of a UK company actually even ASKING, never mind requiring which is contrary to so many laws it's ridiculous.

        Any HR department [plus their legal department which is ironic considering "legal firms" are looking at it] would be busy telling the future of any executive who thought this was a great idea.

        The only user case I would support is Parcel Delivery staff - to find out whether the bastard who left a card saying "You are not home" actually bothered to turn up at the fron

        • But then you could achieve the parcel delivery checking with any non-spoofable device. Heck, if you want to be sure they did the job you put the tracking chip in the parcel itself. Just one problem, what's going to be detecting that? In this work case scenario there'll be trackers all over the workplace pinging whatever chips are in range.

      • I'd be amazed if this could be enforced by a UK employer anyway. The UK has quite strong employee protection laws, and requiring a surgical procedure to remain employed would be almost unenforceable.

        Not after we shit out of the eu with no deal we won't

        • "Fortunately" in the event of a hard brexit we'll still have all the UK laws that enacted EU legislation. It'll take some time to undo it all.
      • It's not different in the US. No court is going to allow a company to require a surgical implant as a condition of employment, or more accurately if a judge wants to commit that kind of career suicide he will be overturned and sanctioned.

        • I could be wrong in my understanding of some US states employment law, but i understood that there are states with "at will" employment law meaning you can be fired at anytime without reason at the will of the employer.

          My understanding is that that is not all states but i wouldnt know which state was or wasn't "at will".

          In the uk and aus that employer right doesnt exist outside of very narrowly defined criteria. So in the us you could fire someone who says no to the implant "at will" where as uk and aus th

    • I would allow them to implant a chip in me, and i would make sure the PIN number was 666

  • I am open to getting implants but none (Score:3)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @07:48PM (#57665052)
    my clients/employers would ever have any kind access to/make use of. I don't know why any employee/contractor would accept that as a terms of employment As for implants for my defective eyes and/or other senses, computer interfacing, nervous system interfacing I would definitely consider it when it looks advantageous and useful. But in reality I am probably to old (63) to get there. Just my 2 cents ;)

    • my clients/employers would ever have any kind access to/make use of. I don't know why any employee/contractor would accept that as a terms of employment
      As for implants for my defective eyes and/or other senses, computer interfacing, nervous system interfacing I would definitely consider it when it looks advantageous and useful.
      But in reality I am probably to old (63) to get there.

      Just my 2 cents ;)

      Hey this is your boss posting. You know that retirement package that kicks in 2 years where you could loose $200,000? It would be a shame if something happened to that.

      Just get the implant and you can keep your retirement package etc.

  • Real question... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @07:51PM (#57665058)

    Real question: is "how the fuck is this actually better than biometrics?" Biometrics are relatively difficult to clone or spoof. A chip is just an ID card implanted in a person -- it can be cloned or otherwise spoofed more easily than the alternative.

    As far as the employers, I agree with other posters' sentiments. Requiring employees to modify their bodies in such a way should be grounds for a massive lawsuit, or simply hanging from the nearest lamppost.

    • It is better for one reason. An insecure/compromised chip can be removed and replaced. Your fingerprints can't. Your face I'd can't be replaced.

      Lastly an implant should only be treated the same as an Id access card. One that can't be lost just compromised.

      • Retinal scanner. Stimulate the pupillary reflex with a quick flash of light to make sure the retina is attached to a living human.

      • An insecure/compromised chip can be removed and replaced. Your fingerprints can't.

        I have a bottle of chloroform and a potato peeler here that argue differently.

    • Re:Real question... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @09:25PM (#57665460)

      Real question: is "how the fuck is this actually better than biometrics?" Biometrics are relatively difficult to clone or spoof. A chip is just an ID card implanted in a person -- it can be cloned or otherwise spoofed more easily than the alternative.

      In the early days of security theatre, when being told to remove your shoes at the airport was a new thing, a friend of mine used to say that it had nothing to do with security, and everything to do with conditioning people to do ridiculous and unreasonable things reflexively when directed to do so by people in authority. I think this chipping idea is more of the same - not in the sense that the people initiating it are conspiring to brainwash people, but in the sense that our culture is (d)evolving to minimize individual freedom and autonomy.

      As far as the employers, I agree with other posters' sentiments. Requiring employees to modify their bodies in such a way should be grounds for a massive lawsuit, or simply hanging from the nearest lamppost.

      Anything short of the latter will be utterly ineffective. I believe the only way to reverse society's march toward universal fascism is through full-scale bloody revolution. I also believe that such revolution is no longer possible. I've literally lost sleep and cried tears over what I foresee for humanity in the coming decades. It's been one of my great sorrows that I never had kids, but that regret is now tempered with relief that I don't have any offspring who will be thrown into the bonfire that is mankind's future.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      Real question: is "how the fuck is this actually better than biometrics?" Biometrics are relatively difficult to clone or spoof. A chip is just an ID card implanted in a person -- it can be cloned or otherwise spoofed more easily than the alternative.

      Your information is out of date. The first generation of passive RFID chips were nothing more than that, a bar code in digital form. However passive chips aren't actually passive in a computing sense, they're just powered by the radio signal so the available power is very low. So they started making more complex challenge-response systems, some of which was snake oil but now they've found ways to do it with proper cryptographic primitives.

      For example here's a paper about using ECC [researchgate.net] verification of authentic

    • >> Requiring employees to modify their bodies in such a way

      Maybe it started with hair length requirements? A young lady I know, business manager at a tattoo parlor chain, had to get a visible tattoo; a low BMI to stay in USA military. This has been going on a while, getting warm froggy?

    • A chip is just an ID card implanted in a person -- it can be cloned or otherwise spoofed more easily than the alternative.

      Including officially by the owner. The really bad thing about biometrics is that it can't be changed.

      With that said, I don't even want a smartphone, let alone my employer to chip me.

    • Re:Real question... (Score:5, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday November 19, 2018 @04:10AM (#57666312) Homepage Journal

      Looking at their technology page they are using this chip from NXP: https://www.nxp.com/products/i... [nxp.com]

      This is a massive security fail. It's just an EEPROM and unique ID combo. Easy to clone. If they had a clue they would use a challenge-response system with no way to read back the critical IDs.

  • Would I allow an employer to do this? I think not (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @08:00PM (#57665102)

    First, chips are often obsoleted. The bits on HID proxy cards go up to handle attacks and business needs. I would not want something implanted where my next employer would demand version 1.0.0.0.1b of the chip and I have 1.0.0.1a.

    Plus, look at IoT vendor reputation as a whole. I wouldn't trust these people to make a secure Wi-Fi light bulb that wouldn't get pwned. Would I trust them with something that I'm stuck with for life? Nope.

    We already have biometrics. Why do we need some startup's chip, other than to give that startup a windfall profit?

    • Re:Would I allow an employer to do this? I think n (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @09:24PM (#57665458) Journal

      First, chips are often obsoleted. The bits on HID proxy cards go up to handle attacks and business needs. I would not want something implanted where my next employer would demand version 1.0.0.0.1b of the chip and I have 1.0.0.1a.

      Plus, look at IoT vendor reputation as a whole. I wouldn't trust these people to make a secure Wi-Fi light bulb that wouldn't get pwned. Would I trust them with something that I'm stuck with for life? Nope.

      We already have biometrics. Why do we need some startup's chip, other than to give that startup a windfall profit?

      You're unemployed. Your savings is about all gone. Your bank called and they are sending John next weekend to repo your car if you don't make payments. Your wife is flirting with another dude who is employed and ready to leave. The bank also wants to know when you can hand over the keys to your home as you are now 90 days out and have a lawyer ready to take you to court and serve papers to get you homeless.

      SHitty company A is here with a way out. Just sign and agree to this and all your problems will go away.

      Not everyone is a hot shit top developer worth $175,000 a year and has the kind of bargaining power you possess in terms of employment. The average American Salary is still $58,000 if you believe that.

  • Who's a good boy? (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @08:01PM (#57665104)

    You're a good boy!

    About that vet appointment we scheduled for you next week. Be sure to wear a comfortable pair of pants.

  • There is no way in the shady side of hell would I ever let my employer implant anything in my body.

  • Can I get a "HELL, NO!" from y'all? (Score:3)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @08:06PM (#57665132) Journal
    No way in hell I'd let any employer do this, and if they fired me I'd be on the phone to the state labor board and an attorney within the hour.
    To be more specific about this: If I was a current employee at ANY company for ANY amount of money and then later said they were going to do this, I'd tell them "hell, no!" and not budge, and being fired would get me litigious in short order. If I got a new job and was told they do this, I would tell them in no uncertain terms that I do NOT consent to having anything this invasive done to me for ANY reason whatsoever, and not budge. In either case there would be legal action.

    Carrying an RFID badge around all the time? I've done that, it's not invasive at all. Inserting hardware into my flesh? Fuck you. Bottom line: Any company that trusts their employees so little that they feel the need to do this, I very likely wouldn't want anything to do with them. If it's optional? I might work for them, and I can't see demanding something like this of employees being legal.

    • Re:Can I get a "HELL, NO!" from y'all? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @09:33PM (#57665484) Journal

      Hi RIck this is your state's unemployement board. I am sorry to say but we have to deny you unemployment benefits as this was a just cause termination based upon misconduct on your end.

      Hi Rick this is your bank. You are behind on your car note. If you do not pay all back payments plus penalties we will send our repo man to repossess your car.

      Hi Rick this is your wife. I can't be with a man without a job and Mike here has one. I am sorry but I want out of this marriage.

      Now you tell me which option you realistically have? If you are like most people who aren't developers and make $56,000 a year (the real average for salaries) I bet you do not have the savings or the bargaining power to say no. Also I may add even if you and many other slashdotters try to say no it won't work as HR is used to average folks saying yes forcing everyone else to be in the minority which they will say no to hiring you.

      Also having a gap on your resume is a very red flag that can damage your reputation and career. It will be noticed for years to come and many HR departments will blacklist you if they have not been fired themselves. That is just what they do all day and won't blink twice.

      There needs to be unions and laws as scary socialistic as that sounds as there is always some desperate dufus who will ruin it for the rest of us even if you are in the top 5% of earners the other 95% will just say yes fucking it up for the rest.

      • Take the chip. There are plenty of doctors who will testify to anything for a quick buck. Congratulations! You've just developed an autoimmune reaction to the coating of the chip, resulting in fibromyalgia and intractable pain. Seeking compensation of $10 million against the company, chip maker, and CEO's personal funds for pain, suffering, and medical costs...

      • Re:Can I get a "HELL, NO!" from y'all? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Monday November 19, 2018 @12:13AM (#57665868) Journal
        Ah screw you. You can be an abject coward and just put up with whatever bullshit people want to visit on you, but some of us actually fight for our basic human and civil rights. I pity you, try to improve.

  • Biblical prophecy (Score:3)

    by jezwel ( 2451108 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @08:06PM (#57665136)
    This highly aligns with those 70s Christian pamphlets/comics that described the mark of the beast - on your head or hand - that would be required for buying or selling.

    Or, in this case, working.

    1984 was meant to be fiction, so was Revelations...

  • Both are sickening.

    The climate at Slashdot became so ill and sickening.

    The big companies shows so much disregards to privacy that it is sickening.
    Trolling here with such stupid obvious question here is as bad.

    Do you really need to ask if ppl willfully agree with such invasion of their privacy, their own body, tainting, violating their own self?
    Can't you figure how wrong this is of a privacy and individual integrity violation it is to implant an ID chip?

    My grand-parents fought for their liberty, their rights against the Nazis who among other so terrible things they did, forced tattoo ID.

    And now we have a young generation of idiots and mentally ill individuals asking if we are ok to be inserted with an ID microchip under our skin?

    • Saying "UK companies are looking to do this" is about as real as Trump saying Norwegians rake up all their forests. It's got some truth, but it massively misrepresents what actually is going on.

      TFA only mentions "unnamed companies" - wait until one actual pays the money and starts the roll out. The Unions will be all over it, and the job market will doubtless become buoyant. I also wonder about contractors - either they have to have them too (which means you won't hire any contractors), or else they don't g

  • I do not have access to TFA but form the summary i understand they would be used as tracking devices. Not to replace or improve over biometrics then.

  • Gell no (Score:3)

    by sjames ( 1099 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @08:12PM (#57665176) Homepage Journal

    It is not my desire to work for an agent of the beast.

  • TFS ends with: "But what do Slashdot's readers think?"
    With 60 answers the trend is clear: The question is a troll.

    Nobody seems to want a chip, is that a surprise? Of course not. But look at all the emotion the question generated. I guess that's money in the bank for Slashdot ... or Facebook, Twitter, etc. Get people riled up and somehow you profit.

    I think it's a cheap shot. It brings out the worst in readers. Frankly it disgusts me. I'm here for news and insightful comments and this gives me neither.

  • No (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @09:11PM (#57665400)

    Pets get chipped.

    I am not my employer's pet.

  • I would tell them they can go fuck themselves.

    Simple as that really.

  • Who are these people who think that this is a reasonable tradeoff for a job? There is no job and no amount of money on the planet that's worth it to me to do that for.

  • How about asking us that question via a poll?

    You do know Slashdot has polls, right?

    • If you do that, the better question would be "at what point will you let an employer chip you". Because, frankly, I would not at my current job. But I I have my price. If someone offered me enough of a salary bump, contingent on getting chipped, I would.

      That said, I don't think these really are needed for security. Cards + pins seem to work just fine.

  • There was a guy in Australia who decide to implant a chip inside himself [theguardian.com] a while back. (also here [slashdot.org]). Still have no idea what he was smoking when he changed his name to Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow.

    • He wasn't arrested. He was fined AU$1000 for implanting a chip from a train ticket inside his hand and attempting to use it as a ticket. He did this voluntarily, the whole thing was slightly ridiculous.

  • I wouldn't worry (Score:3, Informative)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Sunday November 18, 2018 @10:13PM (#57665614) Journal

    An anonymous reader quote Zero Hedge:

    Don't believe anything you read on Zerohedge. It's basically the Daily Stormer with stock numbers and their articles are far more likely to be copypasta from Infowars than anything real.

    • An anonymous reader quote Zero Hedge:

      Don't believe anything you read on Zerohedge. It's basically the Daily Stormer with stock numbers and their articles are far more likely to be copypasta from Infowars than anything real.

      Damn it! If Copypasta is good enough for my code it's good enough for your news!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Raenex ( 947668 )

      Don't believe anything you read on Zerohedge. It's basically the Daily Stormer with stock numbers

      You're full of shit. Daily Stormer is a neo-Nazi site. Zero Hedge is an anti-establishment site. That said, Zero Hedge tends to extrapolate beyond the facts, so cross-check anything they claim with other sites. But we all know by now how partisan every news site has become, so cross-check any site with alternative points of view.

  • I'm morally and ethically opposed to companies requiring employees to have implants or any other mod done to their bodies.

  • If only a RFID chip keeps you out of sensitive areas, sounds like it's time to start making a line of fashionable aluminum layered gloves...

  • So (Score:3)

    by sjames ( 1099 ) on Monday November 19, 2018 @12:06AM (#57665850) Homepage Journal

    If the employees bark and wag enthusiastically, will they get a treat?

    Look out when it comes time to downsize! I guess they'll just take the chipped pets^wemployees to the pound to be euthanized.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I'm amazed any company would take that legal risk. It could be medical - a 1% higher cancer rate 20 years in the future among chipped employees. it could be personal data security when people discover that organizations other than their company are tracking them.

    It just seems a huge risk, when biometrics may be as good. Surely no one is claiming that the chips are "impossible to hack".

  • Not a chance (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hoofie ( 201045 ) <(mickey) (at) (mouse.com)> on Monday November 19, 2018 @04:29AM (#57666376)

    A researcher did this years ago in the UK.

    It looks like a great headline but I think you will find that the legal and regulatory framework in the UK will kill this stone-dead in actuality. It boggles the mind that legal and financial firms are considering this and that their HR Departments haven't killed it.

    One - unless it's an approved medical implant, any company encouraging employees to do this is leaving itself wide open to legal sanction. We're not even touching whether the person getting the implant was given enough information, advice etc. Even if it IS an approved medical devices, can you imagine the hammering any company that "enforces" this rule will get in the courts ? and it doesn't have to be direct, all an employee needs is a suspicion that they were sacked due to refusing and it's game on.

    [Note for our American cousins : UK employment law is rather large and is [rightly] heavily weighted in favour of the employee.]

    Two - whilst it might be trendy for Shoreditch scooter-riding social-media professionals, Unions and Civil Liberties organisations will fight it tooth and nail - and the former has lots of financial and political clout. If there is a Labour government next, it's dead in the water and I can't see even the Tories going for this.

    Three - whilst it might be fine for your dog and cat, the idea of someone putting an RFID implant in me positively Orwellian.

    I'm gobsmacked that this came out of Sweden which is meant to be a highly progressive society.

  • I won't let any company chip me, especially since there still hasn't been a good medical study done to the longterm effects of wearing such a chip. It's already known that in not so few cases the chip is not staying at the place it was injected and starts running around your body..
    Luckily no company can force you to submit yourself to such torture..

  • NO (Score:2)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 )
    NO!

  • Free Management Consultancy Here (Score:3)

    by jrumney ( 197329 ) on Monday November 19, 2018 @07:05AM (#57666652)

    But if it comes down to a choice between getting the implant or losing their jobs, how many workers do you think will choose to become unemployed?

    I can't tell you how many, but I can tell you it will be your most valuable and difficult to replace staff that are first out the door.

  • There should never been a choice between (something invasive here) and losing your job. There should always be an alternative.

    In this case, most of us carry an ID badge with an RFID. This performs the same task. Yes, the badge can be lost or stolen or loaned, whereas with an embedded chip these are a little harder. But I'm not sure I'd want to work for a company that insisted on this with an 'implant or lose your job' scenario. I would, in that case, walk out.

    Now, I'm not against the chip-in-the-hand,

  • I spend a rather large amount of time earlier this year looking at just this for an assignment, so I'm reasonably up to speed on the idea of biometric chips. The only upside to an embedded RFID chip is that it's much harder to lose your card or leave it at home. The downsides are massive:

    * RFID chips are a health risk - they've been known to cause cancers in rats since 1996, and there is evidence of increased cancer risks in large animals too, such as dogs and cats. That's a risk in itself. They also block

  • No, just no....

  • Don't forget to wear a Faraday glove whenever you aren't actively using the implant.

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