RFID Implantees an Interesting Subculture

Filed in archive Case Studies on March 1, 2006

I've noticed an interesting subculture. It's people with implanted RFID chips. It's a very small, but growing group.

You have the Mexican attorneys general who do it for secure access to restricted areas and information; the Spanish night-clubbers who do it to get VIP status and pay for their drinks automatically; and a few other high profile individuals who are making a statement of one kind or another about their seriousness in supporting RFID technology.

Perhaps the most intriguing -- yet puzzling -- group is the geeks who are do-it-yourselfers, who implant RFID chips (or get a friend to implant them) in themselves. We've heard here on the RFID Weblog before from Mikey Sklar, who is one of those implanted with a chip in his hand.

Why do they do it? Some tell me they want to experiment with the technology firsthand, to learn more about the privacy and security issues behind RFID. I suppose others do it out of intellectual curiosity for anything new and cutting edge. Still others, I suspect, do it as a way to be "different" and get attention -- after all, it is quite a rarity for people to have microchips implanted in them. (Top that for cocktail party conversation!)

There may be millions of pets with microchips, but the number of people with chips in them can't be more than, what, a few hundred -- maybe a few thousand? I am only guessing at the number. Certainly, being implanted with an RFID chip is far from a widespread practice.

Still, if you want to follow the practice, there are some message boards out there. Tagged RFID Implant Forums is one of them, featuring discussion threads such as "Which hand to use?".

The latest person with an implanted chip (actually two of them) that I have heard from is Amal Graafstra. Amal has documented his RFID experiments here, including photographs and videos you can download.

Even more interesting, Amal has written a book called RFID Toys. The title "RFID Toys" says a lot about the motivation behind getting yourself implanted with a chip -- it is partly about entertainment.

I haven't read the book, but it was published by Wiley, so I would expect it to be substantive. Check out RFID Toys at Amazon.