The Good And The Bad Of Human Microchipping

Have you heard of the trending phenomenon of micro-chipping? The trend has been around for years for your furry friends, but now, micro chipping is being used on humans!

With any new technological advancement, there are positives and negatives that go along with it. As for chipping in humans, the major concern is privacy.

Before I dive into the privacy debate, lets back track and discuss why someone would choose to be microchipped.

Convenience. A Wisconsin tech company recently gave employees the option to imbed a microchip in their arm. The chip does not have a GPS and cannot track personal information. Its sole purpose is to eliminate fobs, photo badges, etc.

In addition to the convenience aspect, there have been numerous publications made about medical cures, such as:

• BVT successfully restores vision with its bionic eye

• Can a brain implant treat Alzheimer’s? It might just be placebo

• New Implants Could Treat Type 2 Diabetes Without Needles

Other benefits could include never having to carry a wallet/identification, easy access to medical information/history, keeping tabs on criminals.

All conveniences and medical cures aside, what are the potential privacy issues?

· Freedom of choice could be reduced– if the microchips become commonplace, they will be used to make services “better”, which could mean they have the potential to be used by service providers, such as, police departments, retailers, employers. For example, would you still be able to choose your payment method for your groceries (I.e. cash or card)? Or would you have to use your implant to purchase? 

· Could be used in exploitation– the data your chip collects could be obtained by criminals and used or copied. Which in turn could alter your and/or their physical identity.

While human microchipping hasn’t become commonplace yet, we could be moving in the direction where it could be in the near future. While we need to consider several factors, privacy should be a priority. Here at Extract, we have been protecting people’s personal information for twenty years! If you are interested in learning more about our automated redaction and indexing solution, contact us today, or visit us here!