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Yes. In 2017, Three Square Market (32M), a vending and micro-market technology company in River Falls, Wisconsin, offered employees a free, voluntary RFID microchip implant. “All employees” meant everyone could choose it—not that anyone had to.

What happened at Three Square Market?

Three Square Market announced an August 1, 2017 “Chip Party” where employees could opt to have a rice-sized RFID/NFC chip injected under the skin between the thumb and forefinger. The company’s announcement described the implant as an option employees could choose voluntarily (Three Square Market’s July 2017 announcement).

Were employees required to get chipped?

No. The offer was voluntary, and employees who declined were respected. Tony Danna, the company’s vice president of international development, told the Associated Press, “We have employees who have said, ‘I just don’t want to do it.’ And we 100 percent respect that” (AP reporting via CBS News, 2017).

How many employees received implants?

The figures reported before and after the event refer to different stages. Reuters reported on July 25, 2017, that about 50 of the company’s 85 employees had agreed in advance (Reuters, July 25, 2017). The Associated Press later reported that 41 of 85 employees received implants at the August 1 event (AP reporting via CBS News, 2017).

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What could the microchip do?

Three Square Market said the implant could be used to open doors, log into computers, buy food in the company’s break-room market and use copy machines. It was a close-range RFID/NFC credential, not a general-purpose GPS tracker or a device described as continuously reporting an employee’s location.

The company’s release said the chip “does not have tracking capabilities.” That is the company’s description of the device; it does not establish broader conclusions about workplace privacy or the security of every system connected to it.

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What is known about the implant’s health effects and later use?

Contemporary reports describe the chip as approximately the size of a grain of rice and injected beneath the skin between the thumb and forefinger. Melissa Timmins, Three Square Market’s vice president of sales, told the Associated Press, “I planned for the worst and it wasn’t bad at all. Just a little prick” (AP reporting via CBS News, 2017). Her comment is an account of her experience, not evidence of long-term medical safety.

The 2017 reporting establishes what the company offered and how employees used the program at that time. It does not establish long-term health outcomes, whether Three Square Market continued the program after 2017, or what its present-day implant policy is.

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Could employees use the technology without an implant?

Yes. Three Square Market’s 2017 materials also named an RFID wristband and an RFID/NFC smart ring as non-implant options. These are wearable alternatives rather than under-the-skin implants; current availability and compatibility with any legacy Three Square Market system are not established by the 2017 materials.

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  • 【WATERPROOF MATERIAL】Made of clear PET material, these NFC tags feature a waterproof and smooth surface that is wear-resistant and shiny. With a size of 25mm and a thickness of only 0.15 mm, they are ultra-thin and come with a strong adhesive, perfect for applying between surfaces or on the backside of printed matter
  • 【TAG216 CHIP】Embedded with Tag216 chips,operate at a working frequency of 13.56 MHz with 888 bytes of memory. They offer high scanning intensity with a working distance of 0-10 cm, depending on reader configuration. The chips support read and write locking functions, allowing for repeated edits or setting to read-only mode
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