A Wisconsin-based vending machine company next week will become the first in the U.S. to offer its employees embedded biochip technology.

Three Square Market, known as 32M for short, said it will offer the implantable microchip technology to all of its employees as a replacement for ID badges. They’ll be able to use the embedded chips to do things such as opening doors, logging onto computers and making purchases in the office canteen.

The company said the chips will be implanted between each employee’s thumb and forefinger under the skin, in a procedure that takes just “seconds,” at a special event next week.

32M said a Swedish company called BioHax International, based at the Epicenter startup hub in Stockholm, will supply and embed the chips into its employees. The chips rely on older technologies, including near-field communication or NFC, which is used in mobile payment systems and contactless credit cards, and wireless Radio Frequency Identification technology that’s used to track packages in transit.

In a press release, 32M’s chief executive officer Todd Westby said the chips will also be able to unlock phones, operate photocopy machines, share business cards and store medical information. He added that he believes biochips will one day become commonplace, replacing passports, public transit cards and payment systems.

“We see chip technology as the next evolution in payment systems, much like micro markets have steadily replaced vending machines,” Westby said. “As a leader in micro market technology, it is important that 32M continues leading the way with advancements such as chip implants.”

The microchip technology itself is nothing new. Such chips have been in use for several years, installed in packages to track deliveries, trucks, virtual collar plates for pets and many other objects. However, only a few companies in the world are implanting the technology into their employees, including Epicenter, which began offering them earlier this year.

Although the chips themselves shouldn’t cause any health problems, there will be concerns over the potential invasiveness. Unlike ID cards and smartphones that can be left at home, there’s no escaping from the chips once they’ve been implanted, short of physically removing them.

But besides revealing data such as cafeteria purchases and work behavior, there’s not much else that can be revealed about a user from the data stored on the chips, Tony Danna, 32M’s vice-president of international development, told the BBC. The chips can’t even be used to track employees because they don’t contain any GPS tracking technology, he added.

In any case, 32M’s staff seem to have brushed aside any privacy concerns in favor of the convenience the chips will provide. The company said about 50 employees from its approximately 150-person workforce have agreed to be chipped at the “chip party” Aug. 1 at its River Falls, Wisconsin headquarters.

Image: Three Square Market