Advances in science and technology have made innovations like biometric chips possible, but behind the convenience they offer are serious risks of privacy breaches and a shift to a surveillance society. It’s important to find ways to protect personal privacy while overcoming technophobia.
Advances in science and technology are driven by people’s desire to make their lives more convenient than they already are. Consider the smartphone, a modern necessity. The first telephones were invented as a tool to enable communication between people who were far apart. The corded phone gradually evolved into a portable cordless phone, which was further miniaturized for greater portability and ease of use. This ease of portability and use was followed by the rise of smartphones, which combine the functionality of a computer and a phone. Smartphones continue to improve in performance and functionality to meet the needs of people.
Modern technology also includes innovations that make people’s lives easier. For example, there are technologies that allow you to enter a building and have the door unlocked by simply touching your hand to verify your identity, or pay for your purchases in a store by simply walking out. If these technologies are commercialized, individuals could be directly connected to healthcare, security, and other systems in their lives without the need for a device. It would be an amazing advancement if biometric chips could make these things possible in the real world.
A biochip is literally a tiny chip containing specific information embedded in the body of an organism. Biological chips first came to prominence in 2001 with the introduction of the VeriChip, an implantable microchip developed by an American company called Applied Digital Solutions. The VeriChip, which means “verification chip,” is about the size of a grain of rice and contains 126 information characters and an electronic coil, condenser, and capacitor for data transmission embedded in a silicon tube. The chip uses RFID technology, which is used in ID cards, transportation cards, and more. RFID, also known as an electronic tag, is a technology that reads various information on objects using radio frequencies over long distances, and the Berry Chip can be thought of as an RFID tag embedded in the human body. As long as the chip is not removed, it can be used conveniently without the risk of loss.
The utilization of biometric chips will enable the realization of a ubiquitous and advanced networked world beyond the information society or the Internet of Things. Personal information stored in biometric chips interacts with the surrounding environment designed for the Internet of Things, making life much faster and more convenient. For example, an office worker’s time and attendance or a university student’s attendance can be checked by simply passing through a door with a scanner that reads the biometric chip information. Amusement park rides can be enjoyed without standing in long lines, and electronic payment systems can be combined with biometric chips to create even more convenient systems. In hypermarkets and department stores, you don’t have to stand in long checkout lines, you can just walk to the exit with a scanner and pay automatically. Biometric chips can also be used for medical purposes. By storing information such as a person’s health and hospital records on a chip, hospitals can eliminate the need for complicated medical procedures, and in the event of an emergency, the patient’s identity, biometric information, and existing hospital records can be instantly accessed for quick treatment. In addition, thanks to berry chip technology, a biochip that automatically administers medication in time has been invented. With the convergence of these advances in science and technology and biochip technology, things that are only possible in our imagination will become a reality in a few years.
With berry chips, identities and information can be verified more easily than with traditional methods, and children and the elderly who are vulnerable to crime can be located and protected. They can also be used as a convenient way to make various payments, and could be useful for medical purposes. However, this sweet convenience is only one side of the biometric chip coin. Behind the convenience lies the risk of invasion of personal privacy and a descent into a surveillance society. RFID chips are essentially devices for exchanging and identifying information, and while they offer convenience, they also pose the risk of stealing information or monitoring your location through the chip.
In the modern, highly developed information age, digitized personal information plays such an important role that it defines a person. In the information society, we use it to verify our identity, pay for goods, and do almost everything else. So if your personal information is compromised and falls into the wrong hands, that person can pretend to be you and steal things that are rightfully yours. For example, if someone gets your account information or password, the account is no longer yours. Also, chips and GPS can be used to determine your location, which can be used to prevent crime, but there is also a risk that someone could monitor your location. The type and amount of information contained in a biometric chip will vary depending on its intended use and function, but the more personal information we put on a chip for convenience, the more we centralize everything that defines us.
As mentioned earlier, biometric chips that utilize RFID technology exchange information by sending and receiving frequencies. If someone were to use a reader that can read radio waves to steal your personal information for bad intentions, all of your information could be stolen, which is tantamount to losing your identity. Many believe that no matter how convenient biometric chip technology is, if there is no way to keep personal information safe, it should not be commercialized.
Of course, the arguments against biometric chips are not unreasonable, but people are overly fearful of the technology. After all, there are still many cases of personal information being leaked through credit cards and the internet, and privacy breaches due to voice phishing or GPS are still a problem. It’s also not uncommon to find that online banking doesn’t fully protect your credentials or personal information. Even your browsing history is recorded, and when you use a credit card or ID card, it is recorded when, where, and what you do. Sometimes, personal information is leaked en masse and used for criminal purposes. Despite the fact that the internet and credit cards have similar privacy issues to biometric chips, people are comfortable using these technologies.
I have interpreted the opposition to biometric chips in terms of technophobia. Technophobia is a psychological phenomenon in which people feel anxious or resistant to new technologies. People have never experienced electronics that are directly implanted into the body, such as a biometric chip, and I believe this fear is the reason why people oppose the idea of biometric chips. We all have unknown reactions and fears to new and unprecedented things. This also explains the anxiety around AI and self-driving cars. But people want to make their lives more convenient, and technology evolves accordingly. In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, workers were extremely hostile to machines, but over time, machines have become a part of our lives, not just in factories. I believe that biological chips are no different. The revolutionary convenience that biometric chips will bring will become an irresistible trend, and the resistance to it will naturally disappear, and the convenient technology that biometric chips will bring will permeate our lives.
