[PEN-L:7457] (Fwd) CHIPS MAY DIP INTO WORKPLACE SANITY - Windsor Star

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Date sent:              Fri, 28 May 1999 11:15:59 -0700
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Subject:                CHIPS MAY DIP INTO WORKPLACE SANITY - Windsor Star

The Windsor Star                                        May 10, 1999

CHIPS MAY DIP INTO WORKPLACE SANITY

        By Stephan Bevan, The London Times

        Big Brother could soon be watching from the inside. Several British 
companies are consulting scientists on ways of developing microchip 
implants for their workers to measure their timekeeping and whereabouts.
        The technology, which has been proven on pets and human 
volunteers, would enable firms to track staff. The data could enable them 
to draw up estimates of workers' efficiency and productivity.
        The firms, understood to include British banks and technology 
companies, have approached Prof. Kevin Warwick of Reading University, 
a leading cybernetics expert. He has also been in consultations with 
Blackbaud Inc, the American software giant.
        Warwick hit the headlines last summer when he had a silicon chip 
transponder surgically implanted in his forearm.
        He was subsequently able to show how a computer could monitor 
every move he made using detectors scattered around the building in 
which he worked.
        In his experiment, Warwick showed how the system could also benefit 
workers by programming it to switch on lights, computers and heating 
systems as he entered a room -- and turning them off when he left.
        The technology is likely to have a strong appeal to companies with 
high labour costs, for which small increases in staff productivity can have 
a big impact on profits. It is also relatively cheap -- just a few dollars
for 
each person, according to Warwick.
        "For a business, the potential is obvious," he said. "You can tell when 
people clock into work and when they leave the building. You would know 
at all times exactly where they were and who they were with."
        Warwick admits people will be "shocked' by the idea of companies 
asking their employees to have such implants. He said: "It is pushing at 
the limits of what society will accept, but in a way it is not such a big 
deal. Many employees already carry swipecards."
        His research follows earlier experiments by companies, such as 
telecommunications firm AT&T, that showed how smart cards carried by 
staff could be programmed to relay a worker's position back to a central 
computer. AT&T Laboratories in Cambridge have been working on 
"smart badges" for two years. They use ultrasound to tell the main 
computer exactly where the wearer is, allowing their desktop computers 
and phone calls to "follow" them around the building.
        The company has, however, stopped short of suggesting staff should 
have devices inserted into their bodies.
        The first practical application of such technology is, however, not in 
humans but in pets. Under the government's new "passports for pets" 
scheme, which replaces the quarantine system from 2001, dogs will have a 
microchip implanted beneath their skin to identify who they belong to.
        Representatives from police forces in the United Kingdom and the 
United States have also expressed interest in the implant technology, 
according to Warwick.
        He believes that submitting to an implant could be made a condition, 
for example, of being granted a gun licence.