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.
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.
Where's my axe? (Score:5, Insightful)
Where's my axe?
Re: Where's my axe? (Score:1)
Not between your legs, but if you want your toothpick, I can tell you where it is!
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You have my axe!
This is hack proof! :) (Score:1)
Re:This is hack proof! :) (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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.
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Why only immigrant criminals? Are your pure-blood native criminals too stupid?
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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.
Pure-blooded (Score:2)
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
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Unless it features contacts on the outside of the skin, it is a transceiver.
range (Score:2)
Unless it features contacts on the outside of the skin, it is a transceiver.
Yes, RFID chips are transcievers. But, with a horrendously crappy range.
And no really a good collision-resolution alrgorithms (*)
So unless the attacker use extremely conspicuous bazooka-style ginormous cantenna, they WILL definitely have trouble tracking those Swedish thumbs.
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(*) Though some RFID in some contactless cards I've seenchips do.
In one of the Uni I've worked at, if your hands are busy, you could unlock doors by bringing the pocket with your wallet (full of various RFID cards) to the general vic
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Range (Score:2)
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.
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RTFA. It's not inserted into the thumb, but the fleshy part between the thumb and index finger.
How about a ring instead? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: How about a ring instead? (Score:1)
But how do you inject a ring?
Wearables is so 2015 it's all about internals now.
Re: How about a ring instead? (Score:1)
I have a herd of chipped lizards at the ranch. They can sing row your boat in a round.
No Thanks (Score:5, Funny)
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!
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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.
Re:How about a ring instead? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:How about a ring instead? (Score:5, Funny)
If I could get one ring that I could "load up" with all my various identifications, that'd be great.
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. That'd be great.
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I can only imagine what you might say should you accidentally loose it (or some filthy hobbit steals it).
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Dallas Semiconductor tried.
https://www.javaworld.com/arti... [javaworld.com]
20 years ago.
I still have an ibutton on my keychain, but it never got used that much that I would hope.
Re: How about a ring instead? (Score:2)
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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.
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From what I've read, it does cause problems for some. It's a small glass tube implanted in the fleshy part between the thumb and index finger, which works well for most. Except those that use that part of both hands quite a bit, like woodworkers and mechanics.
I imagine it might interfere with some sports and recreation too, like archery, cross country skiing, tequila drinking, rappelling and foosball.
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I'm guessing illiteracy?
convienience is overrated (Score:2)
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Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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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....
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Johnny Mnemonic also springs to mind...
Timothy McVeigh (Score:2)
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.
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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. ;)
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I'm pretty sure the FBI has other ways to stop chipped people from revealing crucial inform{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER
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I'm pretty sure the FBI has other ways to stop chipped people from revealing crucial inform{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER
What are you talking about and who keeps posting as me?
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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)
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Functional piercings for old people (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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.
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A fingerprint or iris scan is immutable. Once compromised, it can't be changed (see blow).
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My chip would contain not a single number, but a read-only array (1024? 2**32?) of large random integers. When you want to set up an online account of any kind, the software would read your chip, pick one value at random, and encipher as your match value the number and its index. If a password gets compromised, just sign up again in the same way.
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Yes, the chip reader would have to be set to return the value at just a single index at once, read any value no more often than every N seconds, and raise an alarm if any software attempted a "read different values as fast as possible" attack from one user. These are the sort of security features that people who have to make up their own passwords find odious now, but which in a chip-based system would be transparent to the user.
Meh. (Score:2)
They're just rutabagas.
what's the goal? save time? (Score:2)
what's the average commute time for swedes?
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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.
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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.
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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.
$180?! (Score:3)
I did the exact same thing with my dog several years ago, and it cost less than $60.
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At first I was really started by your post, then I realized it was an article about RFID chips and not prostitution.
Re:$180?! (Score:5, Funny)
What a ripoff, that's $420 in dog dollars.
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Haha, wish I could give you a “funny” mod!
Re:$180?! (Score:5, Funny)
I did the exact same thing with my dog several years ago, and it cost less than $60.
You need to hold your dog up to your doorknob for it to unlock? What happens if the dog runs away? How will go work out at the gym if the dog is asleep?
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Yeah, I really should've thought things through before I bought that Saint Bernard.
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The full gym workout involves picking the dog up to the RFID reader and putting it down and then going home :)
Question is WHY (Score:1)
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.
Figures (Score:1)
Borg IS a Swedish name.
Comment removed (Score:3)
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No More Need for Pink Triangles | Yellow Stars (Score:1)
How about - no?
From childhood fairytales (Score:2)
Mark of the Beast (Score:2)
By description, it really is the mark of the best. However, it's also a really good idea. That's the irony.
I implanted one 5 years ago - it's very convenient (Score:4, Interesting)
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. 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. 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.
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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.
Why not just get a tattoo on your neck? (Score:2)
It's not for security uses ... (Score:2)
..(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.
Hack proof? (Score:2)
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What the hell happened to that country anyway?!
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Basically rampant Feminism [huffingtonpost.com] and Stupid Juvenile Whiners such as Sweden's Feminizing Boys with Genderless Schools [youtube.com]
--
"When you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything."
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So that's what happened IN the country, but what happened TO the country? As far as I can see nothing happened TO that country and they are doing just fine.
By the way complaining about genderless schools is something best left to those who aren't dominating local political stories with endless debates about who is allowed to use which restroom because everyone will sexually violate everyone else.
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Which usually comes before the most outspoken and vocal proponent of said thought process being caught in one of said bathrooms soliciting sex with someone OF THE SAME GENDER. Methinks those above me doth protest too much....
Seriously though, do you really think that 'feminizing young boys' is a fucking thing? lol....methinks daddy had a little too much alone time with some folks. Get some help!
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Basically rampant Feminism [huffingtonpost.com] and Stupid Juvenile Whiners such as Sweden's Feminizing Boys with Genderless Schools [youtube.com]
-- "When you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything."
Okay, I just read the article at Huff post. As a left-leaning person, I think that is fucking stupid. You are clearly out of real problems to solve if you are concerned about what position people are in when they pee. Shit like that gives the left a bad name.
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We need overly aggressive men to stop the Islamic Horde!
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The individual is not responsible for the collective they are part of. Or are all Muslims terrorists now?
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Every man in Valhalla must be hanging his head in shame to see this country today.
Re: Huge surprise! (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, it's terrible when a country is prosperous, tolerant, with a high degree of happiness in its population. Sad times indeed.
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Yeah, in Amerikkka you can just look towards the Republican party and it's Cheeto-in-Chief. Not too difficult to find folks running on dog whistle politics, now is it? :(
That's not to say that it DOESN'T happen in other countries, but you're trying to make it out like the whole of Europe is one big racist fest. We've all got problems...especially those who believe in some outdated misogynistic masturbatory fantasy where they're the UBERMAN... Poor fellas
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Those verses translates as "on", not "in".
Also, it says "mark" not "invisible implant".
The mark will be visible because it will be a political sign.. it has nothing to do with technology. Notice that it says you can have 1 of 3 options: the mark, the name or the number. In order for a name to stop you, it really has to be political rather than technological.
Re: Mark of the Beast (Score:1)
A mark doesn't have to be visible to the eye, it can be visible to a scanner.
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Repeating this from up above:
"Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and the number is six hundred threescore and six." In gematria, which is a one to one cypher of letters and numerical values, 666 is "Neron Kaisar," or Emperor Nero. Revelation was about history and the present, not the far future.
I know you want the world to end. I know you're too weak to handle reality. But let's not make things worse for others with your delusions, 'k?
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Early manuscripts tend to point to a copying error and indicate the original text as having 616 instead of 666, probably blowing your Nero theory.
Regardless, Revelation had both historical and prophetical implications. You can't study Revelation by itself. You need to throw in Daniel, several of the minor prophets of the Old Testament, and some of Christ's teachings and comments if you want to try to understand the end time prophetical implications of the text.
While the Swedish actions don't fall into t
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Early manuscripts tend to point to a copying error and indicate the original text as having 616 instead of 666,
I recall seeing something about the reason it is 666, is because 7 is considered a holy / perfect number. So the 3 (also a special number in Christianity) 6's represent being incomplete.
Also seeing this show up reminds me of some email from almost 20 years ago stating that Bill Gates was the anti-Christ. It said the mouse (as in us holding the mouse in our hand.. therefor it was like a mark on the hand?) was the sign required on the hands... And then it used military code or whatever to turn his name and
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According to Bible prophecy scholars, the book of Daniel indicates the Antichrist would come from one of the four divisions of the old Grecian empire - part of the Seleucid empire according to Daniel 8 and 11. So although that covers a lot of territory, it also eliminates a vast amount more, including anyone from the United States.
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If the outcomes of the battle of Armageddon or the battle at the end of the millennial period were in doubt, your statements might be valid, but the they are not. In fact, the Bible states that the enemies will be defeated by the word of Christ and the armies coming with Christ won't need to raise a finger to assist Him.
Considering humanity, just because a person is maximally powerful doesn't mean they don't have enemies and it doesn't mean they won't be attacked to try to depose them even if the odds are
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If you read the text where the mark of the beast is mentioned, there is a direct tie to bowing down to worship the image of the beast - to accept the religion of the beast and worship it and the mark. I suspect that that is the primary problem associated with the mark of the beast. The mark itself is simply an acknowledgment that you have done the other to get it and thus are able to buy and sell merchandise in the open market. The Bible forbids accepting the mark (which is unidentified in form), the Antich
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So many are using it? This is only 0.04% of Swedes. More people die from bee stings than are even doing this.
You're several orders of magnitude off there, bud. Swedish bees are relatively docile and seldom sting. Over a ten year period, one death due to bee stings [nih.gov] was recorded.
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