Technology firm’s staff implanted with microchips

A TECHNOLOGY company has become one of the first in the world to microchip staff so they can clock in by waving their arm, rather than using swipe cards or identity badges.

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

Three Square Market is the first firm in the US to use the chip, which was approved by regulators in 2004. Although other companies in Sweden, the Czech Republic and Belgium have offered similar programmes, the uptake has been small due to concerns about hacking. But at Three Square Market, a firm which designs modern machines, more than 50 out of 80 employees have so far volunteered.

The chip costs £230 and is the size of a grain of rice. It uses RFID, or radiofrequency identification technology, which is also used by postal workers to scan barcodes on parcels. The chip is inserted with a needle between the thumb and forefinger, and the procedure is reported to be relatively painless.

Todd Westby, the chief executive of Three Square Market, said the chip would not track employees and did not have GPS positioning. He added that the response among staff had “exceeded my expectations”. “Friends, they want to be chipped. My whole family is being chipped,” he said.