Technology company fitting its staff with microchips

WORKERS at a tech firm are having microchips installed under their skin so they can clock in by waving their arm.

Staff at Three Square Market will be able to buy food in the canteen and open doors with the chip, which is picked up by a reader using radio waves. They can also log in to their computer without using a password.

Three Square Market, which is based in River Falls, Wisconsin, is the first firm in the US to use the chip, which was approved by regulators in 2004. It is not mandatory but so far more than 50 out of 0 employees have volunteered, despite the privacy concerns.

The chip costs £230 and is the size of a grain of rice. It is inserted with a needle between the thumb and forefinger.

Three Square Market chief Todd Westby said the chip did not have GPS positioning and would not track employees. It uses radio-frequency identification technology, which is also used to microchip pets and to track parcels.

A firm in Sweden is said to have chipped workers and Mr Westby said the response by his staff had exceeded expectations. He added: ‘We think it’s the right thing to do for advancing innovation.’

Some staff were enthusiastic. Software engineer Sam Bengtson said: ‘In the next five to ten years, this is going to be more normal.’ But sales director Melissa Timmins said: ‘I’m a little nervous about implanting something into my body.’

Privacy experts also raised the alarm. Alessandro Acquisti, a professor of information technology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, warned that it could later be used to track how long employees were in the toilet or how long they took for lunch.

‘Advancing innovation’