You left your ATM card at home. You forgot to bring cash.
You left your phone in the car. The cashier is looking at you slightly
irritated. What if you could just wave your hand near a barcode scanner or
electrical box and you’re good to go with your products?
In our fast pace world
and with our time efficient lifestyles, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) implantation in your body sounds
like a dream come true, right?
Technology
has undoubtedly made life easier for many individuals. From the creation of the
cellular phone to the invention of the debit/credit card, the ease technology
affords is a major draw for many people who prefer to accomplish tasks quickly
and effectively.
The next
huge advancement in technology seems to be the RFID chip. In the summer of 2017, a tech company in Wisconsin called Three Square
Market voluntarily paid to have their employee’s microchipped in their hands. This
allows employees to easily access the office, pay in the cafeteria, and turn on
their computers without the hassle of passwords. It was purely voluntary.
The subject of
the idea of the RFID chip has been used in popular culture for many years now.
The television show Dark Angel, staring a young Jessica Alba, featured the idea
of a RFID-type barcode that was tattooed on the character’s necks in order to
survive in a post-apocalyptic world.
Music videos
such as Kesha’s “Take It Off” feature characters using an RFID tattoo on their
hands and foreheads in order to get inside a nightclub to party.
Over the last 20 years, popular culture has been working overtime to promote the implantation of this chip as something appealing and trendy.
Over the last 20 years, popular culture has been working overtime to promote the implantation of this chip as something appealing and trendy.
Is it
beneficial for the public, and just how necessary is it?
Radio
Frequency Identification is a technology that uses radio waves to automatically
identify individuals and certain objects. One of the most common ways to
identify individuals is using a serial number that is coded on the chip itself.
The RFID chip is a tiny piece of hardware in which software is stored and can
be accessed by computer systems.
According to
Rose Eveleth of Popular Science, it uses technology similar to security card
readers and an iPhone’s remote credit card pay feature. Many dogs and cats have
an RFID chip implanted in them so that they can be found by their owners if they
go missing.
Many people
have already hopped on board to be RFID chipped. In Eveleth’s piece for Popular
Science, she discusses her willingness to be implanted with an RFID chip,
stating that she is neither very impressed with the capabilities of the chip so
far nor regretful that she got the “rouge” implant in the first place.
Chart information provided by Dangerous Things
Eveleth
states, “Today, the tiny scab has healed, and the device sits just below the
surface of my skin, where it looks like a little pill poking up out of my hand.
Often, when I tell people I have an RFID chip, they react with confusion and a
tiny drop of horror.”
The RFID
chip can be used in a variety of ways, from opening doors at a home or office
to
unlocking
cars.
In terms of
convenience, this almost sounds like a dream come true. Just imagine never
having a set of car or house keys again. One would never have the horrific headache
of tearing a house apart to find car keys ten minutes before work again.
As
technology grows rapidly, soon the RFID chip will be able to store much larger
amounts of information and may even be implanted in children so that a child is
never lost again.
Imagine
being able to place your hand near your phone and automatically unlock it. Oh,
the convenience. RFID chips may also be used to help doctors locate and receive
a patient’s medical information in times of an emergency.
“It will happen to everybody,” says Noelle Chesley,
49, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
“But not this year, and not in 2018. Maybe not my generation, but certainly
that of my kids.”
The
technology of the RFID chip is still being developed and many believe it will
lead to even bigger and better things, but at what cost are we willing to look
the other way in the name of convenience?
While the RFID chip as of right now is only optional, all factors point to a day coming soon when the chip will not be optional but mandatory.
While the RFID chip as of right now is only optional, all factors point to a day coming soon when the chip will not be optional but mandatory.
Kathrine
Albrecht, a privacy advocate specializing in consumer education and RFID
technology
states,
“Ultimately… the fear is that the government or your employer might someday
say, ‘Take a chip or starve.’”
For more information visit the links below:
https://arstechnica.com/
https://arstechnica.com/
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