Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't think changing jobs requires changing the chip. The original employer can simply mark ID#x as being invalid for access, and the new employer can mark ID#x as being valid.

That's not to say I'm for this. I'm reading the article, and I'm going WTF UK? _1984_ and _Brave New World_ were warnings, not manuals!

Based on the many incompatible rfid badge technologies, I’m guessing a single standard for implanted microchips is unlikely.

Why? We have it for pets.

While there is an ISO standard for pet chips, there are several competing versions that are also in use. I think my vet said there were 3 or 4 different kinds and each had a different kind of reader.

There's three different frequencies commonly used in microchips for pets: 125, 128, and 134.2 KHz (the last being the ISO standard). Hope your local animal shelter has a universal chip reader, because I doubt your vet knows whether the chips they use are standards-compliant or not.

ISO standards would be the least of my concerns given how common it is for implanted pet chips to migrate around the body and end up in the dog's leg etc.

> WTF UK? _1984_ and _Brave New World_ were warnings, not manuals!

Too late. The UK is probably the most heavily surveilled country, outside of China.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/one-nation-under-cctv

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/snoopers-chart...

A previous employer wanted me to investigate the possibilities of implanted RFID in order to:

- Track employee bathroom breaks

- Track employee hours of work

- Ensure building security

(in that order)

Cards/Tags were not sufficient because he was certain the employees would cheat him by swapping their cards/tags amongst themselves.

Fingerprint "auth" could not be used for sanitary reasons, retina scanning was too slow.

Passive RFID can be read about 10-15 metres with good enough reader tech.

I don’t think an employer who treats their staff like that or wishes to is worth working for.

Trust works both ways.

Yes there are people who tread water and do little, this happens in any organisation past a certain size and they need to be encouraged or weeded out. But openly treating your staff like cattle is a sure fire way to kill any good will your staff have towards you.

An interesting question to ask is - would the executives submit to this? And would they be happy being judged by those criteria?

I’m not even going to be polite about it, any employer who feels the need to micromanage and audit their employees to this degree can go right to hell.

If anyone wanted to know the exact time I was in the bathroom and when I would tell them to go screw themselves and turn in my resignation.

>> tinfoil hat privacy

I thought privacy concerns around RFID payment and identification were more to do with abuse by private parties, like recording, spoofing/replay attacks, or just private collection. I think I remember some emphasis in early press coverage of e-passports on the idea that they would only be scan-able when opened, (although I'm not sure if that is either true, or helpful). So I guess State Dept. was concerned enough to discuss it.

It is common knowledge that large scale industrial surveillance exists, and contributes to fraud as a side effect. In such an environment, privacy concerns about RFID in payment and govt. ID cards hardly seem so outlandish that they should be dismissed out of hand.

> I thought privacy concerns around RFID payment and identification were more to do with abuse by private parties, like recording, spoofing/replay attacks, or just private collection.

Those are all legitimate concerns, though ultimately a well designed solution would use NFC smartcard emulation with a properly designed applet to alleviate these issues.

Unfortunately, most of the time I see people online wanting to figure out how to block RFID signals from their cards it's because they think they can be read from a distance much greater than a couple mm away from the card.

>> I feel like the question to ask here is why? What on Earth are the benefits to implanting RFID chips into an employee to begin with that cannot be achieved via traditional means like badges or smart cards?

They own you for the $200-$400! Like having an MS13 tattoo all over your face...what gang are you going to be with for life? Raises cost absolutely. https://www.businessinsider.com/economic-reason-for-gang-mem... "If you picture one of these gangs in El Salvador, where many of the members have tattoos, literally from head to toe, it's much much harder for those employees to go and find a job somewhere else,"

Probably easier. If the employee is willing to roll over so much to perform minor surgery, they have a mentality that would be adored in many other places.

> What on Earth are the benefits to implanting RFID chips into an employee to begin with that cannot be achieved via traditional means like badges or smart cards?

No fan of the technology per-se, but presumably they can't be lost or stolen.

> No fan of the technology per-se, but presumably they can't be lost or stolen.

Yep, just like fingerprints can't be stolen. Wait, what are you doing with that knife?!

You don't even need a knife for fingerprints, you can lift them off of whatever that person has touched.

Yeah but you can use a knife for biometrics and implanted chips.

As someone who has had to manage access cards before I would think it is a cost saving measure. The amount of users who lose their cards several times a year is surprisingly large. Not to mention that the users also tend to lend them out and swap them.

That's easily solved by charging $10 for a lost card.

You'd be surprised. They did this at my university, and the numbers did not change significantly over the course of the year.

Edit: University charged for lost cards. They did not implant chips.

I meant for the fees to cover the replacement costs, not that people would stop losing their cards.

So put it in a bracelet.