A company is microchipping employees so they can buy food and open doors with their fingers

A US company plans to start microchipping its own employees so they can purchase items in the canteen and open office doors.

Three Square Market, a tech company based in Wisconsin which designs software for employee ‘break rooms’ in offices, said the scheme will be optional for its staff.

However, it said it is expecting more than 50 of its employees to volunteer for the controversial project, which will see a chip inserted underneath a worker’s skin, between the thumb and the index finger.

The chip will be no larger than a grain of rice.

The company, based in River Falls, has insisted that the technology will not be used for the GPS tracking of its employees.

It is offering the Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) chip to all employees from the beginning of August.

In a statement, it said: ‘Employees will be implanted with a RFID chip allowing them to make purchases in their break room micro market, open doors, login to computers, use the copy machine, etc.

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‘The chip implant uses near-field communications (NFC); the same technology used in contactless credit cards and mobile payments.

‘A chip is implanted between the thumb and forefinger underneath the skin within seconds.’

Three Square Market, or 32M, is partnering with Swedish company BioHax International, which already chips its workers, for the scheme.

Todd Westby, chief executive of 32M, said: ‘We foresee the use of RFID technology to drive everything from making purchases in our office break room market, opening doors, use of copy machines, logging into our office computers, unlocking phones, sharing business cards, storing medical/health information, and used as payment at other RFID terminals.

‘Eventually, this technology will become standardised, allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities.’

Each chip will cost $300 and will be paid for by the company, which insists the data collected will be encrypted.