As a person with a fear of losing my wallet, I have recently discovered that I could potentially never lose it again. Many people are now opting to implant a microchip to act as a credit card into their own hands. The implant is a small glass capsule in the hand between the thumb and pointer finger. The capsule contains a microchip in it which uses radio frequency identification (RFID), which is the same technology used in cellphones, passports and pet microchips. It could make life easier for the user as they will never lose the card and it would be harder to get away with theft as the identity of the user is always visible.
While the tech is not necessarily dangerous to be implanted, they have some other dangers. As part of the Internet of Things, the microchips share some of the risks that other objects in the IoT contain. For example, the user loses their privacy and security because the chip can track where they are always. The chip also contains so little data, so the tech is very vulnerable to malware and hacking. Another downside is the level of laziness it gives the user. These chips have the capability to be used as car keys, house keys and even computer passcodes. While not a danger, some could argue that the laziness is bad for humanity.
Even though you may think the average person will not use this technology, it is more common than you think. Thousands of Swedes currently have a similar version of this technology implanted in their bodies. The Swedish technology utilizes NFC or near field communication. NFC, which stemmed from RFID, allows devices within a four-inch range to share information. This allows the user to pay for items like a credit card or any of the other uses of the device listed above.
Overall, there are positives and negatives to this technology. Do the simplicity and convenience of the implant make it worth it? Or do the risks of security make it impractical? Only a user can tell.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sweden-microchips-artificial-intelligence-contactless-credit-cards-citizen-science-biology-a8409676.html
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170731-the-surprising-truths-and-myths-about-microchip-implants
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/nfc-explained/
I think this new technology is something that will become highly debated once more companies start to get involved. When I first read this post, my first thought was, “What are the health risks involved?”. According to USA Today, I am not the only person who has thought of this. Although this technology may make life easier in terms of paying for goods or clocking in and out of work, there may be some health risks associated with these chips. In 2004, the FDA approved RFID chips to be implanted in order to help medical officials identify any health concerns. However, in 2014, the FDA started to study the concerns of RFID chips in conjunction with medical devices such as defibrillators and pacemakers. This worries me because although RFID chips may make daily life tasks easier, it could cause major health issues.
Something to also consider is that RFID chips have been used in pets. When someone scans a lost pet and finds an implanted chip in the animal, they are then able to find the owner’s name and address. This is beneficial because lost pets can easily be given back to their owners. However, if the chips are placed incorrectly, many animals could experience extreme health issues such as weakness in their limps. This makes me consider the fact that if these issues can occur in pets, couldn’t they occur in people as well?
Overall, this technology is very interesting and can make life much easier. However, there could be some health risks involved.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/07/25/do-microchip-implants-pose-health-risks-ask-swedes-and-pets/507408001/
I like the idea of the chip implants for the easy access to credit cards, keys, passports, and more useful information. I do believe, however, that the security on these devices will seriously need to be upgraded to keep hackers away from our information.
I personally would like to have the option to use some biometric system to “confirm” something like a purchase on a credit card. Using a fingerprint that works like a password of sorts could potentially increase the security and viability of these devices without a substantial increase in our current technological capabilities. Of course, one could then be worried about the fingerprint being stored in a database. Rather than storing millions of fingerprints, I would want the fingerprint to work like an encrypted password that only works to confirm the login but cannot be effectively cracked (I do not fully understand the encrypting technology behind this sort of thing).
One use of these chips that I believe could be extremely useful and potentially life-saving is with elderly people. There are times when elderly with dementia or another mental illness have been known to simply just walk away. These chips could be used to help find these people and bring them back safely much quicker than we could today. Similarly, if these chips could monitor vital signs like heart rate and pressure, or for those with diabetes, blood sugar levels.
A similar life-saving use for the chips could be more of an information “cache” where one’s important medical data could be stored in the chip and in the case of an accident, EMS or first responders could glean this information quickly and easily which would save time and lives in the process. It would be greatly beneficial if you opted into putting things like your blood type, medical history, allergies, emergency contact info, and even your preferred hospital or insurance.
I hope that these chips could one day be used for good things beyond just the convenience of saving a few seconds in line at the cash register.
I personally just don’t see a huge advantage to this type of technology. For one reason I can’t see a huge convenience improvement. I feel that you already have a piece of technology on you at all times and it is safer then the implant. That being your phone. I also don’t think that this technology would be used in any low-income environments, due to the large overhead. In well off communities where this technology would be able to thrive, all the people already have phones. In the US for example 77% of people already have a smartphone. And of those people an overwhelming majority will go nowhere without it. For this reason, I don’t see an implant being more convent to anyone. On top of this there is the issue of security of witch the implants are not very secure but phones on the other hand have been proven to be quite secure.
I do think that if there was a technology to somehow implant our phones into are minds or right on to our eye, there would be more of an interest in this tech. As long as we are dependent on phones for our day to day lives I see no need for an implant into are bodies that is less secure and no more convenient.
The las thing I wanted to touch on is how a repair on these devices would work I haven’t found anything about it online so if anyone know let me know!
http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/
This is a really cool concept. In an ideal world this would be awesome to have. Extremely convenient an easy to use. You would never forget your wallet at home., which is something I do all the time. For as innovative this is I don’t think I would personally want to do this. Banks and credit card companies can still get hacked and accidentally leak personal information. If this was to happen, would you need a new chip to be implanted, or could the account number and everything be changed remotely? Although this would decrease the amount of plastic we use on credit and debit cards. As someone who cares about the planet, that would be a big plus to me.
I think there should be more research done before it’s available to everyone. We should test the kind of material that goes into making the chip and how that could affect the human body, just to be safe.
It is an interesting innovation. For me, it would be really helpful because I am carefulness, and I always worry about whether I losing my wallet or credit card when I go shopping.
If the technology of this credit card implants is mature, I believe people would like to use it in a broad range of daily life. However, I still have several questions about it. Is it easy to insert or take out of our hands? And also, there is no reliable evidence or experiments to verify there is no harmful effect to the human body when a person inset implants. The microchip in William’s hand is small, so it is not easy to observe the situation about its impact. Moreover, the website said “It does come with risk”, it means we cannot exclude all the danger of the microchip implant. Is it really convenient to insert a microchip into the finger? We need hands to do many things, whether this microchip impacts our daily life? So many questions are needed to be testified
Secondly, in some situation, the advantage will become the disadvantage. Since people insert credit card implant into the fingers, the process of paying becomes so fast. However, do you think about the situation that you will buy things without consciousness? The simplified process of paying makes you spend money so quickly. For instance, the iPhone X. As we know, iPhone X uses face Id to replace the fingers print Id, so people can also use their face to go shopping. However, the face scanner is not always sensitive. Sometimes, the system cannot recognize your face. I think the hand credit card implant will face the same problem.
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170731-the-surprising-truths-and-myths-about-microchip-implants
Although this is an extremely creative idea, the negatives certainly outweigh the positives. As mentioned before, the chips are susceptible to hacking which does not seem safe as far as credit cards and banking are concerned. However, these chips may also be dangerous in another way. I have heard many reports over the years about cell phone frequencies causing cancer. For example, women have beed advised not to keep phones in their bras, and people have been cautioned against sleeping with their phones under their pillows. Because these chips emit the same frequencies as cell phones, it may not be safe to implant them in your skin. Some animals that have had these chips in the past for tracking purposes suffered different kinds tumors and cancers. Before these chips become popular I hope more research can be done to verify their safety.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/82032.php
This microchip is a very interesting idea. It goes along with the internet of things by combining so many different aspect of technology. This chip is about the size of a grain of rice and gets injected right into your finger. It has many functions which does make it practical. It functions as a swipe card to open doors, operate printers, buy food, be keys to a car, a credit card and more. It is super convent and eliminates carrying many things. It has a very strong appeal so it makes sense that people would be so interested.
I do not believe this is safe because hackers can easily gain tons of information from the microchips. Every article regarding thee chip talks about concerns of safety since there is nothing protecting the chip from getting hacked. I believe this is unnecessary. There is no reason people can not carry around a wallet that they need to inject themselves with a chip. It is as if we are trying to turn ourselves into robots. It does not seem like we have done enough research to know that the chip is safe to be inside of our body.
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-microchip-employees-20170403-story.html#