People in Sweden have started getting implanted with microchips that contain their COVID-19 passports, according to Newsweek.
The chip, developed by Epicenter, can store a COVID-passport under the skin.
"Implants are very versatile technology that can be used for many different things, and right now it is very convenient to have COVID-passport always accessible on your implant," Epicenter's chief disruption officer Hannes Sjöblad told Ruptly.
"In case your phone runs out of battery," Sjöblad says, referring to the COVID-passports on phones, the chip, he adds, is "always accessible to you. So of course, that's how we use this technology today, next year we are going to use it for something else."
But according to an article from Nya Dagbladet, Sjöblad warns that because all that is required to read these chips is the swipe of a cellphone over the body, an implantee's information is at risk of being hijacked.
"These chips are easy to read," he warns, "which means that I can sneak up to you with my mobile and read what is on your chip. I usually tell people not to write the secrets of their lives on their chip."
Parsons' article mentions that around "6,000 people in the country have so far had a chip inserted in their hands." However, that is not to say those people got a microchip inserted in their body for a COVID related passport, as the chips could be used for other purposes.
The chips, which are slightly larger than a grain of rice, can be implanted in the arm, between the thumb and forefinger, or in other body parts.
At the beginning of December, the Swedish government issued a guidance that for some events with 100 or more people, a COVID-passport would be required.