Are Humans the Next Big Platform?

In Sweden, in particular, where the report indicates consumers seem more comfortable sharing personal information, some 3,000 people have implanted microchips.

As Hannes Sjöblad, who founded the Swedish biohacking group Bionyfiken, told Business Insider in 2015: “We are updating our bodies with technology on a large scale already with wearables. But all of the wearables we wear today will be implantable in five to 10 years.”

From conveniences to life-altering benefits

Sjöblad’s prediction is realistic. It is becoming increasingly possible for implanted microchips to not only help people streamline their everyday lives but also to protect and monitor their security and well-being. The Atlantic reports that at Three Square Market, a vending-solutions company in the US, employees voluntarily received chip implants to enhance the firm’s network security. An implanted chip can grant an employee access to their computer, but only if they already used the chip to access the building that day.

Patrick McMullan, president of Three Square Market, launched an offshoot of the company to focus on potential medical applications of implantable microchip technology. RFID microchips could have a significant impact on the current methods of monitoring of patients, as well as the delivery of medical care. They could help doctors collect real-time information from a patient and could also ensure the security of a patient’s prescription drugs. One medical study even suggested that implanting microchips in tumours could provide a new method for treating cancer.

When opportunities bring threats

While these innovations promise great quality-of-life advancements in medicine in particular, they also pose risks.

Much like how computers are vulnerable to attacks from cybercriminals mining for personal information, could people implanted with microchips become targets themselves? A number of recent studies have raised privacy and security concerns about the information stored in RFID microchips. Even a person’s physical security could be compromised if criminals see an opportunity to profit from information implanted beneath a person’s skin.

Concerns related to liability and ethics abound as well. If a microchip is used to monitor a health condition, who is at fault if the technology fails and the patient suffers? The Atlantic report says McMullan’s company is developing a way to make GPS-enabled microchips available to people whose relatives have severe dementia. While that application could benefit patients, families and nursing care facilities, how should that technology be allowed to be applied elsewhere in the marketplace?

“Like a business protects its computer network from a range of threats and develops and implements an action plan in the event of a problem, people with implanted microchips must protect themselves,” said Mark Lawrence, Technology Underwriting Development Manager at Travelers Europe. “The same is true for the organisations that offer implantable microchips and manage the information they contain. While the technology may enhance people’s lives, it also creates exposures that must be measured and managed.”