Technology is becoming closer and closer to our bodies, from the phones in our pockets to smart watches on our wrists. And here, some people entitle them under the skin. In Sweden, a country known for technological advances, thousands of people put microchips in their hands. These chips are designed to speed up everyday tasks and make life more convenient: make it easier to get into the homes, offices and gyms.
You can also use them to store your important contacts in case of emergency, profiles in social networks and e-ticketing for events and train within Sweden. Supporters of the tiny chips say they are safe and are largely protected from hacking, but one of the scientists expressed their concerns on confidentiality of personal health data that can be stored on such devices.
Chips under the skin: future or present?
These chips are the size of a grain of rice, usually inserted into the skin just above the big toe of each user, using a syringe, similar to a conventional syringe for vaccination. The procedure costs about $ 180.
So many Swedes lining up to receive microchips that the main kiperousa company in the country says cannot cope with the number of queries.
More than 4,000 Swedes have already adopted the technology and the market reigned one leader company Biohax International. Kiperousa firm was founded five years ago by Jovan Ostersundom, a former professional specialist body piercing.
Working on this project seven days a week for the last two years, he is currently developing training materials to recruit Swedish doctors and nurses who would relieve his busy time.
“To have various cards and tokens as proof of your identity to various systems, just doesn’t make sense,” he says. “The use of chips can mean a considerable simplification of existence in all this twisted environment.”
Many of the first proponents of the use of chips out of a thriving startup scene in Stockholm. Eric frisk, 30-year-old web developer and designer, says he became interested in the technology as soon as I heard about it, and decided to put its own chip in 2014.
“He is completely passive, has no source of energy or anything. When you are talking to the reader, the chip sends back the ID that tells the reader what is behind the chip,” he explains.
“The Swedes are very pragmatic, and the chip useful. And since many people know each other in the technological community is very close — the trend is spreading, people see the benefits,” says frisk.
When frisk moved to a house in the beginning of this year, he organized a party with chips for their new housemates. Now they can access the building from the 16th century, which is home to Stockholm’s Old town, offering a hand to the digital reader on the door.
“This chip basically solves my problem,” says 28-year-old Sylvia Versegi, which also uses it to get into a coworking space.
She also use to share their data LinkedIn to network events, avoiding the need to correctly pronounce his name. She just touches the smartphone to another participant, and transmit information. “When the other phone reads the chip, they see a link and can open it in the phone browser,” says Varszegi.
The largest railway company of Sweden started to allow passengers to use chips instead of tickets, and say that the chips will soon be used to make payments in shops and restaurants.
“I see no obstacles to the distribution of chips. I think they can significantly improve people’s lives,” says Varszegi.
Osterlund, believes that there are two important reasons why microchips have begun to gain popularity in Sweden. First, the country has a long history of adopting new technology long before many others and rapid transition to what may become a society that does not use cash at all.
In the 1990-ies the government of Sweden has invested in providing quick online services for its citizens and gave tax breaks to companies who provided their employees with home computers. Familiar to many Skype and Spotify have Swedish roots.
“The more you hear about the technology, the more you learn about technology the less you are afraid of them,” says Osterlund.
Only 1 of 4 people living in Sweden, uses cash at least once a week. And according to the Central Bank — the Riksbank — the share of retail cash transactions declined from 40 percent in 2010 to 15 percent today.
Osterlund the second theory is that Swedes are less concerned about privacy than people in other countries, due to the high confidence of Swedish companies, banks, large organizations and government agencies.
The Swedes are used to share personal information with numerous online retailers and administrative authorities requiring social security numbers. Mobile phone numbers are widely available in online databases, people can easily find out the salaries of others, requesting the tax information.
Osterlund, says personal microchips are much harder to crack than many other sources of data because they are stored under the skin.
“Everything can be hacked. But since it’s a microchip, it will be difficult to crack. It is inside you,” he says. There are several high-profile critics of the Swedish trend of microchipping and virtually no regulation from the state.
But Ben Liberton, English scientist living in southern Sweden, believes that it is necessary to closely monitor how events will unfold.
“What is happening at the moment, relatively safe. But if the chips will be used everywhere, everytime you want to do something and instead of cards use the chip is very very simple to get your personal information.”
Liberton, professional microbiologist working in the field of scientific communication, says that one of his main concerns is how you can use the chips to exchange data about our physical health and physical function.
“Because it is implanted in your body, the greater the associated health information is used and transmitted through the chip, the greater concern is the need to protect this additional layer of private data,” he says.
Despite these concerns, the trend, it seems, was not going to go down. This month one of the co-working spaces in Stockholm will hold a big implant party, which DSruptive tech startup promises to show “the new generation of implants custom level”. The device will include 2 KB of memory — twice more than the previous implants — a number of new features and led light that is designed to improve privacy. The bulb will flash if someone tries to read or to access the implant.
Osterlund, says that tougher data privacy rules, which came into force across the European Union at the beginning of this year, GDPR, can also accelerate the spread of microchips.
“This is the most serious set of laws protecting individual integrity,” he says about the GDPR. But this kind of regulation does not exist at the global level, which can slow the spread of trends in other places.
“I can’t imagine what the rest of the world will GDPR in the near future. But the whole of Europe — I mean one continent is already a good start,” he says.
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