SurveillanceMinority Report? Wisc. company replaces ID cards, badges with microchips implants

River Falls, Wisconsin-based technology company Three Square Market has become one of the first in the world to implant microchips in staff so they can clock-in or enter secure areas by waving their arm instead of using swipe cards or ID badges.

The implanted microchip would also allow employees to order food at the cafeteria and open the parking garage doors.

They can also log in to their computer without a password.

The BBC reports that Three Square Market is the first U.S. firm to use the under-skin chip, which regulators approved more than a decade ago.

Companies in Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Belgium have offered microchips to their employees, but fewer than 10 percent of these companies’ employees accepted, citing worried about biohacking.

At Three Square Market, more than 50 out of 80 employees have so far agreed to have the microchip implanted.

The chip, the size of a grain of rice, costs $280 and uses RFID. It is inserted with a needle under the skin between the thumb and forefinger. Those who had the chip implanted say that the procedure does not hurt too much, and that the mild sensation disappears altogether within hours.

Three Square Market chief executive Todd Westby said that the chip would not be used to track employees and did not have GPS positioning.

“We think it’s the right thing to do for advancing innovation just like the driverless car basically did in recent months,” said Westaby.

He said that the response among staff “exceeded my expectations.”

“Friends, they want to be chipped. My whole family is being chipped - my two sons, my wife and myself,” he said.

Sam Bengtson, a software engineer at the company, said it was “pretty much 100 percent yes right from the get-go for me.”

Bengston added: “In the next five to ten years, this is going to be something that isn’t scoffed at so much, or is more normal. So I like to jump on the bandwagon with these kind of things early, just to say that I have it.”

Privacy experts expressed concern, and questioned how secure the chip really was.

Alessandro Acquisti, a professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, told the BBC that the microchip could be used for something more invasive later on.

The chip could track how long employees were in the bathroom or how long they took on their lunch breaks without their knowledge, he said.