Epicenter

2017: Implantation of chips for access to office equipment and payments of lunches

In April, 2017 the Associated Press agency announced that the Swedish startup of Epicenter turns the employees into "cyborgs". To people the microchip of the size of a risinka is implanted in a palm, and after that at them need for use of proximity cards disappears: open doors in the company building, they can use the office equipment and pay off in local cafe, having just waved a hand.

The Epicenter company is located in Stockholm and has the state about two thousand people. Chipping is offered to workers since 2015. The procedure almost painless also takes several seconds. Using the special syringe the implant is entered into soft tissue of a palm between big and a forefinger. Chips implanted already to about 150 employees.

The chip implanted to the staff of Epicenter

According to the cofounder and the chief executive officer of Epicenter Patrick Mesterton, the main advantage of technology — in convenience as the chip in a palm replaces the credit card, keys and to that similar things.

Epicenter and some more companies became pioneers in respect of large-scale chipping of employees though the technology in itself is not new. Similar microchips are implanted to pets for a possibility of their identification, and the companies use similar electronic tags for delivery tracking.

However, chipping of people raises questions concerning personal privacy and data security. Using chips it is possible to learn how often the employee goes to work or that he buys. Besides, experts are afraid that in the future when on microchips even more important personal information, such as data on health is stored, they can become the purpose for the attacks of hackers.

However newly appeared "cyborgs" from Epicenter so far not too worry about it. Moreover, the technology gains popularity and is beyond a startup: the company holds every month events which visitors can implant free of charge to themselves chips.^[1]

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