Roundup: Chip in hand replacing key cards in Norway

Key cards in Norway can be replaced by a chip in hand and there are technology and implants so called "wearables" and "insideables," that could supervise medical states of people with chronic diseases, newspaper Aftenposten wrote on Sunday.

Fredrik Enersen, a Norwegian employee, had a chip installed in his hand by a tattoo artist and the chip has all the information from the previous key card at his work place, media bureau Mindshare.

The chip also contains his business card information that can be scanned via an application of Android smart phones.

"I was at one of the Mindshare seminars in spring where one could pay 900 kroner (105 U.S. dollars) to get a chip installed and I simply had to do that. I am interested in technology and would like to be updated with the development," Enersen told Aftenposten.

Hannes Sjoblad, founder of Swedish non-profit organisation BioNyfiken, said that there were probably more people with the installed chips in Sweden than in Norway. His company tests out "insideables" -- chips and implants that can be connected to human body.

"Chips are not news. It has already been very usual to place chip in animals' body," he said, adding that sensors which can be put anywhere and communicate with other things online also make chips usable in human bodies.

The majority of the users today use them instead of keys and different types of key cards or to open a mobile phone with a chip instead of a pin code, Aftenposten wrote.

Sjoblad also believes that it will eventually be possible to put bank card, passport and personal medical information into the chip.

According to the report, implants are currently for specially interested people and many others are probably sceptical about having things, so far associated with computers, installed in the body.

However, implants in human body are not there only for fun, but can also make everyday simpler, Aftenposten wrote.

They can be used for medical purposes, helping people with chronical diseases. They can, for example, constantly measure the level of blood sugar of patients with diabetes, without the need to use insulin pens several times per day.

Chips can also contain information about blood type and used medication, which makes the easier access for medical personnel in case of an accident.

Ole Johan Borge, director of the Norwegian biotechnology advisory board, said that both "wearables" -- technology worn on body that measures different body functions, such as smart watches, pulse watches, Google Glass eyeglasses -- and "insideables" -- technology installed in the body, using the same principle, such as implants that measure insulin level, contact lenses that measure glucose level, CardioMEMS measuring and supervising pressure and pulse of people with heart problems -- develop very fast. He thinks that this is first of all a positive development.

"The trend of accurate measuring in a prolonged time makes it possible to get much better basis to determine a diagnose and provide a personalised treatment. We know now that two people with the same type of disease should not always have the same medical treatment. Wearables help us to customize the treatment for each patient and it is therefore important in the introduction of personalized medicine," Borge said.

However, he thinks that a challenge might lie in privacy protection if the information is downloaded in application or is directly forwarded to the doctor.

"With the new technological means of support we will get much more information about the person than before. This information spreads fast and in that case handling and storage of information must be good. Today it can be a challenge without national solutions," Borge said. "We have a long way to go."

"The way I see it, we must understand new technology, both to apply it and to prevent it to be applied against a person's own will," he explained.

Atle Arnes, specialist director of technology of the Norwegian data protection authority, said that there were two important factors that influence the safety of a chip if only looking from technology perspective.

"The one factor is if there is an extra safety in the chip, for example access control, like the one in biometric passports. The other is if the chip could be reprogrammed or change identity in case it is hacked from the outside," Arnes said.

Enersen said that he met different reactions when people heard that he had a chip in his hand.

"Some people think it is completely amazing and cool, while others get scared or uncomfortable. I can understand that people react to it, but the near-field communication that the chip uses is passive and does not send out the information, unless it comes in contact with a scanner that can read it," he said. Endit