NPR reports that a Midwestern company is offering to implant microchips into their workers. The article states that “Employees who have the rice-grain-sized RFID chip implanted between their thumb and forefinger can then use it ‘to make purchases in their break room micro market, open doors, login to computers, use the copy machine.’” Some workers have apparently already accepted the chip implants.
I understand how the convenience factor might be appealing to some people, although having to enter a login password to a work computer, being required to put money in the vending machine to purchase food, and needing to enter a four-digit code prior to making copies are the very definition of first-world problems.
Unsurprisingly, people have expressed privacy concerns regarding this initiative. The company insists that the technology that it uses is not trackable. But one wonders what might happen if a technology that enables companies to track the locations of these chips (and, by extension, these employees) emerged.
Companies have historically had great deal of power over their employees in the American workplace, but in the past it was pretty well-accepted that what people did with their personal time was their own business. However, with a trackable microchip, companies could monitor where their employees are at all times. Big Brother (in the form of your boss) could always be watching you.
I’m sure companies that adopt this technology will promise their workers that they will abide by strict policy guidelines and limits in the way they use such microchips. Nevertheless, one hopes that companies at least continue to make these chip implants optional, rather than mandatory. It will be interesting to see how this experiment plays out. Skeptics and dissenters among us will probably insist that accepting this “gift,” if offered by any corporation or government, isn’t worth the risk that it could be a high-tech Trojan horse.