Right before pinball jumped the shark in the early ’90s, there was this movie called Demolition Man. It starred Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock, Wesley Snipes, and the guy who played the evil warden in Shawshank Redemption. IMDB readers scored Demolition Man a 6.6 out of 10, which is generous. But, that’s not the point of this post.
But, that’s not the point of this post.
In Demolition Man, citizens get an RFID chip implanted in their hand so that the government can monitor their movements.
Nearly 25 years later, a Wisconsin company plans to implant an RFID chip about the size of a grain of rice into the hand of its employees. No, it’s not mandatory, and the company claims that the chip will not be used to track employee movement. Rather, according to this New York Times report the chip assists employees with “swiping into the office building, paying for food in the cafeteria.”
And, apparently, many in the workforce are stoked! Here’s one example from the NYT story:
“It was pretty much 100 percent yes right from the get-go for me,” said Sam Bengtson, a software engineer. “In the next five to 10 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.”
According to the NYT report, the chip is FDA approved and not nearly as powerful as other RFID technology, such as the stuff that you carry around in your smartphone.
But still, I can see how someone would be creeped out by the privacy and health implications of getting a chip embedded under the skin.
Still, who am I to judge?
I’d like to hear from you. Take this quick poll and I’ll post the results tomorrow.