https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/microchips-at-wisconsin-firm-part-of-growing-augmented-reality-trend.html?__source=facebook%7Cmain
For now, Three Square Market, or 32M, hasn’t offered concrete benefits for getting chipped beyond badge and log-on stats. Munster says it was a “PR stunt” for the company to get attention to its product and it certainly succeeded, getting the small start-up air play on CBS, NBC and ABC, and generating headlines worldwide. The company, which sells corporate cafeteria kiosks designed to replace vending machines, would like the kiosks to handle cashless transactions.
This would go beyond paying with your smartphone. Instead, chipped customers would simply wave their hands in lieu of Apple Pay and other mobile-payment systems.
The benefits don’t stop there. In the future, consumers could zip through airport scanners sans passport or drivers license; open doors; start cars; and operate home automation systems. All of it, if the technology pans out, with the simple wave of a hand.
Not a GPS tracker
The embedded chip is not a GPS tracker, which is what many critics initially feared. However, analysts believe future chips will track our every move.
For example, pets for years have been embedded with chips to store their name and owner contact. Indeed, 32M isn’t the first company to embed chips in employees. In 2001, Applied Digital Solutions installed the “VeriChip” to access medical records but the company eventually changed hands and stopped selling the chip in 2010.
In Sweden, BioHax says nearly 3,000 customers have had its chip embedded to do many things, including ride the national rail system without having to show the conductor a ticket.
In the U.S., Dangerous Things, a Seattle-based firm, says it has sold “tens of thousands” of chips to consumers via its website. The chip and installation cost about $200.
After years of being a subculture, “the time is now” for chips to be more commonly used, says Amal Graafstra, founder of Dangerous Things. “We’re going to start to see chip implants get the same realm of acceptance as piercings and tattoos do now.”
In other words, they’ll be more visible, but not mainstream yet.
“It becomes part of you the way a cellphone does,” Graafstra says. “You can never forget it, and you can’t lose it. And you have the capability to communicate with machines in a way you couldn’t before.”
But after what we saw in Wisconsin last week, what’s next for the U.S. workforce? A nation of workers chipping into their pods at Federal Express, General Electric, IBM, Microsoft and other top corporations?
Experts contend consumers will latch onto chips before companies do.
Chesley says corporations are slower to respond to massive change and that there will be an age issue. Younger employees will be more open to it, while older workers will balk. “Most employers who have inter-generational workforces might phase it in slowly,” she says. “I can’t imagine people my age and older being enthusiastic about having devices put into their bodies.”
Adds Alec Levenson, a researcher at University of Southern California’s Center for Effective Organizations, “The vast majority of people will not put up with this.”
Three Square Market said the chips are voluntary, but Chesley says that if a company announces a plan to be chipped, the expectation is that you will get chipped — or risk losing out on advancement, raises and being a team player.
“That’s what we’re worried about,” says Bryan Allen, chief of staff for state Rep. Tina Davis (D), who is introducing a bill in Pennsylvania to outlaw mandatory chip embedding. “If the tech is out there, what’s to stop an employer from saying either you do this, or you can’t work here anymore.”
Several states have passed similar laws, while one state recently saw a similar bill die in committee. “I see this as a worker’s rights issue,” says Nevada state Sen. Becky Harris (R), who isn’t giving up. “This is the wrong place to be moving,” she says.
Should future corporations dive in to chipping their employees, they will have huge issues of “trust” to contend with, says Kent Grayson, a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
“You’ve got to have a lot of trust to put one of those in your body,” Grayson says. Workers will need assurances the chip is healthy, can’t be hacked, and its information is private, he says.
Meanwhile, religious advocates have taken to social media to express their displeasure about chipping, flooding 32M’s Facebook page with comments like “boycott,” “completely unnecessary” and “deplorable.” On 32M’s Google page, Amy Cosari a minister in Hager City, Wisc., urges employees to remove the chip.
“When Jesus was raised, he was raised body and soul, and it was him, not zombie, not a ghost and we are raised up in the same way,” Cosari wrote. “Employees of 32Market, you are not a walking debit card.”
Get used to it, counsels Chesley.
Ten years ago, employees didn’t look at corporate e-mail over the weekend. Now they we do, “whether we like it or not,” he says.
Be it wearable technology or an embedded chip, the always on-always connected chip is going to be part of our lives, she says.
REAL ID Deadline Looming: Here's What You Need To Know
The new ID will be required for domestic flights next year and it requires a lot more documentation than a regular license.
By Alex Costello, Patch Staff
|
Beginning in a year, U.S. residents won't be able to take domestic flights unless their state ID is compliant with the REAL ID law. New York has been issuing the IDs, but time is running out for residents to get them before their travel plans get disrupted.
Henry 2020
The program is opposed by the ACLU, which says it is a thinly veiled attempt to create a national ID, and says it will allow the federal government to collect even more information on residents, as well as put an burden on state governments to issue the ID cards.
REAL IDs don't look much different from a standard New York State driver's license, and the license itself doesn't have any new information. But in order to receive one, you have to go to the DMV and prove your identity, your New York residency, your lawful presence in the country and your Social Security status. Doing this gets you star icon on your license, which means its REAL ID compliant.
Unlike regular license renewals, getting a REAL ID requires an in-person visit to the DMV. It has caused long lines and delays at some DMVs, especially in New York City, as the New York Post reported. If you're thinking about making the switch, make sure to plan ahead.
When you go to the DMV to get your REAL ID, there are a few documents you have to bring with you. And they need to be originals, not copies:
- Proof of identity, such as valid license, birth certificate or passport, with your full first, middle and last name. This name will be displayed on your card as required by federal law.
- Proof of Social Security Number or Social Security Number ineligibility. If you have a New York State driver license or identification card, you must bring your Social Security Card or a letter from the Social Security Administration proving your ineligibility to have a social security number. If you lost your Social Security Card, you must get a duplicate before you come to the DMV.
- Proof of your date of birth.
- Proof of U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency or temporary lawful status in the U.S.
- Two different proofs of New York State residence such as utility bill, bank statement or mortgage statement (P.O. Box not acceptable). This address will be displayed on your card.
- If the name on your license, permit or non-driver ID application does not match the name on your identity, lawful status and social security proofs, you must bring court- or government-issued proof documenting the event causing your name change, such as a marriage license, divorce decree, adoption or court order document.
New York also now offers Enhanced IDs. These documents are REAL ID compliant and offer all the same benefits, and they additionally allow you to use them as ID to cross the border from Canada, Mexico and some Carribean countries without needing a passport, but only by car. Enhanced IDs cost an additional $30.
No comments:
Post a Comment