‘Do you scan your veins before accessing your bank account? Use a microchip implanted in your hand to pay for your groceries? Or have a tattoo on your wrist that can unlock your smartphone?
If not, you or your friends may soon.
Once upon a time we only read about biometric identification and nanotechnology in apocalyptic novels, but now it is here.
And I recently encountered this technology. Just a few days ago while I was buying groceries, I noticed a button on a debit card machine that read “RFID tag.”
So instead of using cash or a debit card, I could have used an RFID tag to pay for my groceries. Or perhaps I could have even scanned my hand. That is, if I had an RFID chip implanted in it. The government and big corporations are promoting the technology.
In 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light for Americans to have microchip implants to carry information. RFID chips are being used for everything from turning on your lights to turning on your cell phone to even tracking NFL players on the football field. Not all of them are impacts, but the technology works similarly either way.
Some Christians see the implants as the “mark of the beast” or warn they someday will be used for that purpose. The RFID implant technology is advancing just as the movie Left Behind movie — based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins – hits theaters. The Left Behind book series mentions a mark of the beast.
Man Has Implant Inserted In Hand
Ben Slater, an advertising director from Australia, had a microchip inserted into the webbing of his hand in a Melbourne tattoo parlor, and now is able to turn on lights and open doors without touching anything.
“The most obvious thing the chip allows me to do is store my contact information on it, so that I can just touch a phone with NFC (near field communication) and pass my information to their phone. That is a great party trick,” Slater told Daily Mail Australia.
“But it can also trigger an action on my phone to turn the house lights off, open a secure door which is set to recognize the chip or I could — and probably will — set up my car ignition to be linked to the chip for keyless entry and start up.”
Slater made the choice to get the microchip implant because he is interested in the future of technology.’
“I wanted to get the chip implanted to generate discussion,” he said.
“It intrigues me that we live in an age where this type of activity is even possible, especially for some seeming random guy in Australia to arrange to have done.”
Another technology allows temporary tattoos to unlock smartphones.
Barclays Bank Taps Into Vein Biometrics
Banks are looking to new technologies to thwart hackers. Barclays bank said it is working with Hitachi, the Japanese technology firm, to develop a biometric reader that scans a finger and identifies unique vein patterns to access accounts, instead of using a password or PIN.
In order to work, the finger must be attached to a live body. The finger is put into a scanner that plugs into a computer and resembles a small helmet that a Star Wars Stormtrooper might wear, according toReuters. Once the finger is scanned, the vein pattern is matched and stored on a SIM card.
Some banks in Japan use vein biometrics, but Barclays said it is the first bank to use it globally.
“Biometrics is the way to go in the future. We have no doubt about that, we are committed to it,” said Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Barclays personal and corporate banking.
Vaswani said criminals were also getting more sophisticated, so banks need to stay ahead of them.
“You can’t let these guys create a breach in the dam. You’ve got to constantly stay ahead of the game,” Vaswani told Reuters.
No doubt, Left Behind will stir up much debate about the Rapture, but one thing that Christians can agree on is that Christ will return.
In fact, four in 10 Americans believe that Christ will return soon, according to a poll taken by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. We don’t know when Christ will return, but we are living in perilous times.
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