We reported last week on the Wisconsin company that is the first in the US to have a microchip program. Please see our previous report after the update below.
Three Square Market has received international attention since it announced the voluntary microchip program, believed to be the first of its kind in the United States.
The microchip program is voluntary. If willing, employees allow the company to implant a Radio-Frequency Identification chip between the thumb and forefinger.
The RFID chip will open doors, log in to computers, and make purchases from vending machines. The technology is similar to mobile pay services like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
Three Square Market assures employees that they will not be able to track them because the chip does not have GPS. Data on the microchip is encrypted.
The company says the chip is FDA approved. It is removed “similar to a splinter.”
A reporter from our Milwaukee partner station WISN is covering the “chip party.” Tim Elliott had a chip implanted and tweeted that it “hurt a bit … like a mean pinch. Read more: wbay
IT BEGINS: Wisconsin Company First in US to Implant Microchips in Employees
If you worked for a company that offered the convenience of a microchip implanted in your hand, would you get it? A company in Wisconsin is going with the trend: “It’s the next thing that’s inevitably going to happen, and we want to be a part of it.”
RIVER FALLS, Wisc. – A company in Wisconsin is about to become the first in the US to offer microchip implants to its employees.
“It’s the next thing that’s inevitably going to happen, and we want to be a part of it,” Three Square Market Chief Executive Officer Todd Westby told KTSP.
The company designs software for electronic break room markets, are commonly found in office complexes.
People are currently able to purchase items at the market using phones, but Westby wants to take things a step further and implant a microchip inside a person’s hand.
“We’ll come up, scan the item,” he explained, while showing how the process will work at an actual break room market kiosk. “We’ll hit pay with a credit card, and it’s asking to swipe my proximity payment now. I’ll hold my hand up, just like my cell phone, and it’ll pay for my product.”
More than 50 employees are having the devices implanted starting next week. Each chip, which is implanted between a person’s thumb and forefinger, is about the size of a single grain of rice.
Along with purchasing market kiosk items, employees will be able to use the chip to get into the front door and log onto their computers.
Each chip costs $300, but the company is eating the cost. They’re implanted between a person’s thumb and forefinger.
Westby added the data is both encrypted and secure.
*”There’s no GPS tracking at all,” he said.
FORTUNE reported:
The company is working with Biohax International, a Swedish company specializing in “smart biometric sensors.” The embedded chip uses the same sort of near-field communications (NFC) technology that enables people to hold up their phones to a device to make payments. *The chips also rely on wireless RFID (radio frequency identification) technology used to track packages in transit.
***DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE A RED FLAG HERE?
No employees at Three Square Market will be required to get the chip implant.
Via: wbrz
