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Privacy Security Hardware Technology

Thousands of Swedes Are Inserting Microchips Under Their Skin (npr.org) 193

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: In Sweden, a country rich with technological advancement, thousands have had microchips inserted into their hands. The chips are designed to speed up users' daily routines and make their lives more convenient -- accessing their homes, offices and gyms is as easy as swiping their hands against digital readers. They also can be used to store emergency contact details, social media profiles or e-tickets for events and rail journeys within Sweden. Proponents of the tiny chips say they're safe and largely protected from hacking, but one scientist is raising privacy concerns around the kind of personal health data that might be stored on the devices.

Around the size of a grain of rice, the chips typically are inserted into the skin just above each user's thumb, using a syringe similar to that used for giving vaccinations. The procedure costs about $180. So many Swedes are lining up to get the microchips that the country's main chipping company says it can't keep up with the number of requests. More than 4,000 Swedes have adopted the technology, with one company, Biohax International, dominating the market. The chipping firm was started five years ago by Jowan Osterlund, a former professional body piercer. After spending the past two years working full time on the project, he is currently developing training materials so he can hire Swedish doctors and nurses to help take on some of his heavy workload.

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Thousands of Swedes Are Inserting Microchips Under Their Skin

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  • Where's my axe? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fyngyrz ( 762201 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @07:04PM (#57532701) Homepage Journal

    Where's my axe?

  • Poor choice of words? As in "I could not imagine how a thief would steal my identity" ? Thumb, meet knife.... I will now invest in a prosthetic thumb medical company, as I foresee many Swedes without opposing thumbs very soon.
    • by MightyYar ( 622222 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @07:30PM (#57532867)

      Thieves are dumb, so you can't rule this out. But think about it: a guy has his thumb chopped off and the guy who has his thumb possesses a completely unique piece of evidence that ties him alone to the crime. Further, this thumb is useless unless he actually USES it. It's an electronic ID chip, so he immediately subjects himself to an absolutely known time and location with every swipe.

      Yeah, that thief will be very hard to catch.

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Well, the immigrant criminals will be able to track wealthier Swedes where ever they go. Hey this person can afford a tracker, lets mug them, some days latter, hey it's the same idiot with a tracker. Day or night, everyone who can read the chip know who you are and have an idea what you are worth.

        • Why only immigrant criminals? Are your pure-blood native criminals too stupid?

          • No, it's the immigrant work ethic. They are much more industrious and hard working than the natives, as they seek to eek out a better life for themselves and their family.

          • Are your pure-blood native criminals too stupid?

            I suspect that all the inbreeding to which the racist native criminals have subjected to themselves to keep their "pure blood" status, might have played out negatively and could indeed explain why they're much stupider~~ :-P

    • Probably not couldn't you use a man in the middle attack to get the key? Similar to attacks with automotive key fobs.
      • by DrYak ( 748999 )

        The problem is that RFID has a much crappier range than the typical car keyfob.
        In practice that would require the transmitter which goes near the victim to be crazy close (like in the same pocket where the victim put their hand), or to use a very conspicuous bazooka-style ginormous cantenna.

    • by arth1 ( 260657 )

      RTFA. It's not inserted into the thumb, but the fleshy part between the thumb and index finger.

  • by chispito ( 1870390 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @07:09PM (#57532731)
    Why not wear a chipped ring instead? That way you can change your ID if it gets compromised and no knives are involved.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      But how do you inject a ring?

      Wearables is so 2015 it's all about internals now.

    • No Thanks (Score:5, Funny)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @09:20PM (#57533369)

      Why not wear a chipped ring instead? That way you can change your ID... ...to the person you stole it from.

      An ID "ring" appeals even less to me than a chip implant, because at least it's a lot harder for someone to grab an internal chip to spoof being me.

      I think the smartest way to go about this would be to implant the chip at the top of your head, that way when you didn't want it read you could wear a tinfoil hat. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

      • Why not wear a chipped ring instead? That way you can change your ID... ...to the person you stole it from.

        An ID "ring" appeals even less to me than a chip implant, because at least it's a lot harder for someone to grab an internal chip to spoof being me.

        I think the smartest way to go about this would be to implant the chip at the top of your head, that way when you didn't want it read you could wear a tinfoil hat. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

        You don't need to steal it, you just have to spoof it. Same as ID badges that we already use. And again... no surgery required.

    • by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @09:26PM (#57533389) Homepage

      Why not wear a chipped ring instead? That way you can change your ID if it gets compromised and no knives are involved.

      One way or the other the main thing is getting everything to work on the same standard. I mean I could replace my door lock with an electronic one, but it'd use its own chips. My car has its own key fob. Work has its own access card. My gym has its own access card. If I could get one ring that I could "load up" with all my various identifications, that'd be great. Ideally with some sort of PIN for when just the ring's presence is not enough.

    • In the UK a 'chipped ring' would sound like a painful injury!
    • by TnkMkr ( 666446 )

      Because you could CHOOSE to take off a ring when ever YOU want at no cost or pain to yourself. And you could replace it with no assistance what so ever... and god forbid you might even be able to swap with someone else.....

      pretty sure that would defeat the true purpose of these chips. While they sell the chips with great features FOR you, I don't think they really mention the great features for others.

      But I'm paranoid.

  • Soon I will be able to send my robot to the movies and it can have sex with my wife's robot.
  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @07:34PM (#57532887)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Archfeld ( 6757 )

      Spot on nice reference. It brought Methuselahs children by R.A. Heinlein to my mind as well but your is even more topical and pointed. Wish I had mod points for you....

  • It is so funny Timothy McVeigh believed the Feds had implanced a chip on him and were controlling him. So he went and made a fertilizer bomb and killed 160 people! Now people voluntarily line up to have one implanted!

    Well, pretty soon even precocious 10 years olds who could assemble protocol droids in their sparet ime wont be able to build a scanner to find these implants.

    • Timothy McVeigh believed the Feds had implanced a chip on him and were controlling him. So he went and made a fertilizer bomb and killed 160 people!

      The real question is, why did the FBI tell him to blow up one of their own buildings? The answer is that it was a transparent false flag operation to keep chipped people from suspecting they too might be chipped as it interferes with the programming! I'd tell you more about it but my chip is erasing my memory of this conversation. ;)

      • I'm pretty sure the FBI has other ways to stop chipped people from revealing crucial inform{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER

        • I'm pretty sure the FBI has other ways to stop chipped people from revealing crucial inform{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER

          What are you talking about and who keeps posting as me?

      • The real question is, why did the FBI tell him to blow up one of their own buildings?

        According to Timothy, the chip was implanted by the army, not the FBI. He told people the chip was used to track him, but never said it could control his mind. He served with the 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One), and was described by some as a model soldier. He was promoted to sergeant.

  • NO FLIPPING WAY (Score:5, Interesting)

    by p51d007 ( 656414 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @07:40PM (#57532919)
    Bad enough we have so much crap, face ID, chip cards and all this other crap. It's just more conditioning, so in the years/decades to follow people become even more accepting to this crap. "it's for your safety, for your convenience" Load of BS. It more for tracking, data mining and all other crap. Eventually they will load these with a death dart, and at some point when you are no longer good to "the state" they can just cut you down.
    • by nnull ( 1148259 )
      They already have us conditioned about being spied on everyday in stores, what we watch, what we type, what we buy. So no surprise to me. It's to the point that people are calling us crazies idiots for not joining in on the fun.
  • by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @09:00PM (#57533295)

    In being the "IT country doctor" in a high-end retirement area, everyone's biggest IT problem I encounter here is keeping track of passwords. If an implanted read-only chip full of large random numbers were offered as an alternative to the whole password mess, 95% of this town would be on it like stink on skunk. No more lists of passwords in spidery handwriting taped onto monitors, no more having to come up with online identifiers cobbled up to satisfy increasingly arcane security rules and then forgotten. To log onto anything from your system, just place the palm of your hand on a USB-connected reader and the app, operating system or website would use the I'th random number on the chip as your password.

    For our seasoned citizens, an authentication chip would be the greatest thing since Medicare.

    • In being the "IT country doctor" in a high-end retirement area, everyone's biggest IT problem I encounter here is keeping track of passwords. If an implanted read-only chip full of large random numbers were offered as an alternative to the whole password mess, 95% of this town would be on it like stink on skunk. No more lists of passwords in spidery handwriting taped onto monitors, no more having to come up with online identifiers cobbled up to satisfy increasingly arcane security rules and then forgotten. To log onto anything from your system, just place the palm of your hand on a USB-connected reader and the app, operating system or website would use the I'th random number on the chip as your password.

      For our seasoned citizens, an authentication chip would be the greatest thing since Medicare.

      Maybe we could tattoo some kind of unique mark on the skin of our fingers instead? This would be less invasive a procedure. We could call the mark a 'print' that goes on our 'finger'. Nah, would probably never work.

  • by hey! ( 33014 )

    They're just rutabagas.

  • what's the average commute time for swedes?

    • by arth1 ( 260657 )

      I'm not sure what the average is, but Swedes like to live in the countryside (not just suburbs) or different cities than where they work, and quite a few commute by train.
      It's not uncommon for train commuters to start working while on the train, using laptops and mobile phones.

      • That's correct. Trains are very good for working on, and with one hour each direction that's good time to spend catching up on emails, doing code reviews and going over designs and related documents, even if coding can be harder to get done with the normal interruptions of travel.

        For a while a few companies rented train carriages and set up commuter offices in them, but as technology has advanced that is no longer required or cost effective.

    • I use a regular chip card for my commute. I grab the card out of my pocket while I approach the card reader, and swipe the thing without slowing my step. Putting the chip in my hand would save zero time.

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @11:06PM (#57533679)

    I did the exact same thing with my dog several years ago, and it cost less than $60.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Its a dam RFI chip, why not just put it inside a ring, wristband or whatever you never take of?
    As a Swede I have only seen it once and it was som guy on the train that had his commuter ticket on the chip. The rest of us have the ticket in the phone app there it's also bought.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Borg IS a Swedish name.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday October 25, 2018 @04:29AM (#57534283)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • "To better keep track of you, my child."
  • By description, it really is the mark of the best. However, it's also a really good idea. That's the irony.

  • by gachunt ( 4485797 ) on Thursday October 25, 2018 @09:15AM (#57535083)

    I had my friend (registered nurse) implant an RFID chip about 5 years ago in my hand. Since then, I have wired the doors on my house, garage, vehicles and safe with chip scanners.

    It is incredibly convenient to have this chip. I use it daily. Saves me time. And the geeky cool factor hasn't waned.

    Two unique stories about my chip:

    1. 1. It was a unique conversation with my sister, who is my executor, to explain that the chip will need to be dug out of my hand to get to my will.

    2. 2. The admin assistant at my office overheard me talking about my chip, and I had to spend 15 minutes calming her down and explaining that I am not the Beast, and have no plans to enslave the world's population.

    • What's wrong with religious people, I mean wtf? I just saw an episode of "Everything for Sweden" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and when told that less than 4% of Swedes attend church several of the Americans started to cry...
    • What happens if you are killed in a some type of aeroplane crash or industrial accident where they can't find your hand?
      What happens if you are kidnapped and are never seen again?
      What happens if you lose your hand (but still survive) in some accident?
      No chip, no will !
      Might be wise to have a back up plan for that will.

  • Seems like it would be easier just to get a barcode tattooed on the back of your neck. You know, one with a number that begins with '999'?
  • ..(at least as I see it) it's more about convenience. As in with a movement of your hand active switches when you enter a room, sits down at your work place or in front of your TV-screen. It's a tool for preferences.
    Seen from security perspective it's lacking in the same way (and more so) as finger prints, face recognition etc: it's too easy to replicate.

  • It seems naive to believe the hardware will not be found to be vulnerable in the future, up to the point it will require replacement.

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