Microchips in the Age of Coronavirus

The coronavirus crisis will soon be exploited as a means to push for microchip implants. We will be told it is for our own good and those who resist will be shamed. They will be shamed just as those who want to reopen the country are being shamed today. These implants won’t just carry our data — they will be used to track your whereabouts and more.

Technological advancements have led to new and intuitive ways for us to manage everything from our steps to our heart rate. Take the Apple Watch, for example, this little device not only makes phone calls and displays your text messages — it also monitors your heart rate, steps, and exercises.

Embracing Technology

These technological advancements make everyday life easier and even provide peace of mind. The general population openly embraces these devices and the conveniences they offer. Nonetheless, privacy concerns abound.

Take for example the company Fitbit, they have recently been acquired by Google. This gives Google access to every user’s steps, heart rate statistics, sleep patterns, and the plethora of data found within each user’s account. Along with Fitbit, there are countless other smartwatches and health monitoring devices gathering data on each and every one of us.

Today data is everything and the resounding question is what is happening to all of this data. As companies like Google and Apple amass this comprehensive data on their users — the question remains, where is that data going?

Healthcare companies are getting into the smart technology realm offering credits and discounts. All users have to do is provide them access to the data generated by the Fitbit device or Apple Watch. Upon receiving the data they determine if you hit your “goal” such as 10,000 steps a day for a predetermined number of days a month. Achieving such goals results in discounts and money back on your insurance premiums.

While this sounds like a fantastic motivation tool, questions arise over privacy concerns and what may happen as this technology advances into newer devices such as the coveted “microchip”.

Microchipping is Upon Us

For many, the next “logical” step forward from wrist-worn health devices would be microchips. This technology is already being openly embraced in Sweden where some are having what they call “microchipping parties”.

At a cost of around $180, these microchips are similar in size to a grain of rice. They have even made the installation process akin to getting a vaccination. The microchip is implanted at the base of your thumb for maximum convenience.

While many in Sweden look at this microchip trend as a convenient way to carry their data, there are both technological and ethical calamities to this. These microchips are intended to carry sensitive personal data such as passwords and other information leaving them open to potentially being hacked. Furthermore, the possibility remains that the government may soon look to these rice-sized devices as a means to monitor the people.

COVID19 & Microchips

“Conspiracy theories” are running rampant surrounding the idea that microchips may be used in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. As with most conspiracy theories, there is some truth to the idea that microchips may simply become what many like to call the “new normal”.

This phraseology has been relentlessly tossed around and used as an excuse to change the way we live going forward. Take for example the cell phone tracking applications currently in use in China. The Chinese government mandated all citizens download a specific application in order to travel outside the city of Wuhan as the lockdown restrictions were eased.

According to the NY Times,

But a New York Times analysis of the software’s code found that the system does more than decide in real-time whether someone poses a contagion risk. It also appears to share information with the police, setting a template for new forms of automated social control that could persist long after the epidemic subsides.

As you can see the tracking applications aren’t simply to aid in the detection and prevention of COVID19. There are ulterior motives at play here.

Couple these tracking applications with the implementation of drones and you have a dragnet that can both monitor and track the citizenry. Some municipalities around the United States have begun using drones to enforce “social distancing” guidelines. Furthermore, these drones come with the ability to monitor one’s biometrics such as body temperature and respiratory rate.

Seeing how far we have come and how we many have surrendered their personal liberties — it’s easy to see how microchipping could be the next “logical” step. Rather than track individuals through a smartphone application or fly drones to enforce social distancing, governments could simply mandate the citizens receive a simple microchip implant. Said implant could possess all of the power needed to not only track an individual but monitor their biometrics at all times.

This will be positioned as a way to “protect the people.” Just as most infringements on our civil liberties — we will be told it is for our own good. And as many are shaming individuals who question the current lockdown, rest assured individuals will be shaming those who object to a simple microchip implant.

Conclusion

While some may look to the idea of government-mandated microchipping as a conspiracy theory — the same could be said for drone surveillance and tracking applications in our smartphones. Most ideas that are written off as conspiracy theory are in reality ideas that people do not want to come to grips with. Will microchip implants will soon be one of those “conspiracy theories” come to fruition.