Everything You Need To Know Before Getting An RFID Implant

What if you could open your front door or unlock your car just by raising your hand? Never having to trouble yourself with your Covid pass ? Or remembering where you've put your wallet . What about sending your LinkedIn profile or a dancing monkey GIF to a phone just by holding it? And what about turning on a coffee machine by pointing to it?

This is not the future anymore. Wannabe-cyborgs with little RFID chips under their skin are living with us: thousands of people have implanted the tiny devices already under their skin to be able to have simpler access to buildings or (other people’s) phones. Do you want to join the cyborg community? Here’s what you should know about RFID chips before you implant them into your body.

Captain Cyborg and the RFID implant

The radio-frequency-identification (RFID) technology has been around for decades. It is a tag, label or card that can exchange data with a reader using radio frequency (RF) signals . It usually has a built-in antenna and an integrated circuit (IC). The antenna can send and receive radio waves, while the IC takes care of modulating and demodulating the radio signals, as well as the processing and storing data. The RFID chip is very similar to a bar code label as it also typically works with a scanner or reader, although it has a wider scope. You can use it for almost anything: clothes, shoes, vehicles, animals, and even people. RFID chips as luggage tags make sure that your suitcase arrives where it was supposed to go. Dogs getting pedicured in New York or cows living on the ranch near Ohio have been on the way to cyborgization for years – as they are most likely RFID chipped for identification. And you probably already have a personal RFID chip that goes with you everywhere — it’s in your credit card .

The first-ever human to receive an RFID microchip implant was British scientist Kevin Warwick (known by the moniker “Captain Cyborg”) in 1998. This experiment allowed a computer to monitor Warwick as he moved through halls and offices of the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, using a unique identifying signal emitted by the implanted chip. He could operate doors, lights, heaters and other computers without lifting a finger. Approximately two decades later, the technology has been made commercially available, and thousands of people decided to implant an RFID chip. For example, groups of people have been meeting at “implant parties,” often organized by larger companies, to hook themselves up. It’s especially popular in Sweden, where more than 4,000 individuals can take pride in opening doors with only lifting their hands. So, why is the rush? And why should you consider implanting one?

Source: www.techworld.com

Congratulations, you’ve been RFID chipped!

In the future, an RFID chip implanted into your hand, between your thumb and your index finger on the back of your hand, could contain a lot of useful information – that you usually carry around in your wallet or purse. It could transmit your identity information as you walk through a security checkpoint, enable you to use public transport and make long lines at the supermarket checkout a thing of the past. You don’t have to worry about losing your most important documents or your wallet ever again – and ‘within hand’s reach’ will most certainly have a second layer of meaning to it. Moreover, imagine that in a medical emergency situation the first responders only have to scan your hand to get to know every valuable bit of medical data about you.

We are obviously not there yet. Altough the technology has ripened a lot recent years, even the most advanced chips cannot do too many things at once. For many years now, a chip could only store just over 1000 bytes of memory , and that hasn’t increased much over the years. However, according to user reviews, they can fill in a couple functions. "I use my microchip to store my medical records and work portfolio, as well as to use it as a crypto wallet and to unlock doors" - says Brandon Dalaly about his implant in this article .

In theory , you could connect it to your bank account, to your transit card to use it in the subway, or to pay at the grocery store – but the problem is that these systems aren’t designed to work with such implants. That makes sense at the moment, but we actually expect such systems to be upgraded soon to work with RFID chips. In any case, if you think it’s lame to get access to the office through entrance cards, you might convince your boss to order RFID chips from Dangerous Things , an online store that sells four different implantable transponders, and the place where most people buy their implants.

Or you could also try the Swedish Biohax International , the chipping firm that was started six years ago by Jowan Osterlund, a former professional body piercer, and made RFID chips overly popular in the Scandinavian country. Altough, the company seems pretty inactive these past few years despite being one of the forerunners of the field.

Source: www.mintpressnews.com

Dangerous? Hackable? Limiting? – The hazards of RFID chips

Before you hit the order button on Dangerous Things website to order some implants, there are several things to think through as an RFID implant isn’t a temporary tattoo, which can be removed by taking ten showers. That’s actually one of the most problematic parts of these chips: who is going to implant it, how safe it is for your health, and how do you remove it?

Medical Concerns

Dangerous Things recommends their professional body piercing or body modification partners to complete the installation of this product, but definitely someone with experience performing aseptic procedures. Thus, you should NOT experiment with implanting it yourself, and rather turn to a medical professional who conducts the procedure in a clean area with sterilized instruments to avoid the risk of infection. The company says that the pain level of the implantation of the chip is that of a bee sting or giving blood. The same is promised to be true for removing the RFID transponder. Dangerous Things says that the removal or replacement procedure is easy, you don’t have any interference issues with MRI, or get caught at the airport security gates, metal detectors or airport scanners due to your chip. In addition, the implants are pretty durable – you can easily fight supervillains all day long, the RFID chip will most probably not break.

Privacy and surveillance worries

Although RFID chips are not powerful enough to be tracked – just as dogs cannot be tracked when they wander off – or to connect to any satellite, some have fears that such chips give corporations the possibility to have control over them. What if they could track users in the future? Would you want a chip in your hand if it could tell for how long it took you to have a shower or to go to work? Since most chips are offered through big companies , it’s just a matter of time until this happens.

Are the chip implants hackable?

Some biohackers say that it’s very easy to hack an implant, so you’d rather not hide your life secrets in the implant’s memory , but so far, we haven’t heard of major RFID chip hacks. On the other hand, we know of at least one individual who used the chip embedded into his hand to hack into other people’s phones , so that might be a bigger concern. However, another idea that already surfaced among concerned potential users, namely that your hands might be cut off if someone wants to break into your house or office seems to be rather Black Mirror-ish than something to be worried about.

Am I really becoming a cyborg?

On the other hand, implanted RFID chips, just as digital tattoos or chest patches already represent the second stage of cyborgization , and that’s because no matter what Dangerous Things say, they cannot be removed as easily as your Flash T-shirt at the end of the day. Remember the bug in Neo’s stomach in the Matrix? He couldn’t have taken it out without help – but after some time, no lasting marks remained.

In the second stage of augmentation, technology interacts with the human body in a way that it already has lasting, but not irreversible impact. Although their removal might be problematic, implants, patches, and tattoos could be cut out and discarded. Some extreme examples, where removal might be more difficult than the user believes, already exist: Jerry Javala let doctors embed a USB port into his finger prosthesis , but at the time being, RFID chips seem to be on the easier end of the spectrum.

So, if you decide to get an RFID implant, you’ll still be very far from real-life cyborgs , such as Neil Harbisson , an artist born with achromatopsia or extreme colorblindness meaning he could only see in black-and-white. At first, he received his specialized electronic eye, his “eyeborg” to be able to render perceived colors as sounds on the musical scale. He is capable of experiencing colors beyond the scope of normal human perception: Amy Winehouse is red and pink, while ringtones are green .

All in all, the technology is very promising, although many might find the abilities that an RFID chip can do at the moment rather as geeky party tricks than useful everyday accessories making life easier.?