STOCKHOLM\u2014Dystopian nightmare or a simple convenience? A Swedish company implanting microchips under the skin is promoting its devices for use as a Covid-19 health pass in a country with thousands of early adopters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s very much part of my own integrity to have myself chipped and keep my personal data there with me, I actually feel that it\u2019s even more controlled on my end,\u201d Amanda Back, a Stockholm resident who has implanted the subcutaneous chip developed by DSruptive Subdermals, told Agence France Presse.<\/p>\n
Though still rare, several thousand Swedes have opted to have an electronic implant inserted under the skin in recent years, eliminating the need to remember key fobs, business cards, public transport cards, and recently: vaccine passes.<\/p>\n
Bio-hackers
\nThe country that created the show \u201cReal Humans\u201d and its English language adaptation \u201cHumans,\u201d is also a stronghold of so-called biohackers who are convinced that humans will become evermore entangled with technology in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a chip implant in my arm and I have programmed the chip so that I have my Covid passport on the chip and the reason is that I always want to have it accessible and when I read my chip, I just swipe my phone on the chip and then I unlock and it opens up,\u201d said Hannes Sjoblad, managing director of DSruptive Subdermals, as a PDF with his vaccine certificate appeared on his phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cA chip implant costs a hundred euros if you want to buy the more advanced versions, and you can compare this with for example a health wearable that will cost perhaps twice that but at the same time a chip implant you can use for twenty, thirty, forty years. Whereas a wearable you can only use for three, four years,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
No surveillance tool
\nFor Sjoblad, the Covid pass is just one example of a possible application, which will be a \u201cthing for the winter of 2021-2022\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Swedish entrepreneur added he has a \u201cstrong interest in privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he acknowledged that many \u201cpeople see chip implants as a scary technology, as a surveillance technology\u201d, Sjoblad said that instead they should be viewed as a simple ID tag.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t have a battery, they cannot transmit the signal by themselves, so they\u2019re basically asleep, they can never tell your location, they are only activated when you touch them with your smartphone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
All implants are voluntary, and if someone were to make them compulsory for prisoners or elderly people in retirement homes, \u201cyou will find me on the barricades,\u201d Sjoblad said. \u201cNobody can force anyone to get a chip implant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STOCKHOLM\u2014Dystopian nightmare or a simple convenience? A Swedish company implanting microchips under the skin is promoting its devices for use as a Covid-19 health pass in a country with thousands of early adopters. \u201cI think it\u2019s very much part of my own integrity to have myself chipped and keep my personal data there with me, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_glsr_average":0,"_glsr_ranking":0,"_glsr_reviews":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid19","category-general-news","category-vaccines","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"