Thousands of Swedes have already had microchips implanted to replace keys, business cards or train tickets - and soon, perhaps, the Covid passport. The Swedish company DSruptive Subdermals, which specialises in microchip implants, has developed a corresponding Covid passport that goes under the skin: the person now always has his proof of identity at hand, says company boss Hannes Sjöblad.

Cheaper and longer lasting

“I have programmed the chip so that the health passport is now also on it,“ says Sjöblad. He demonstrates how he reads his chip by holding his mobile phone over it, unlocking it and then the PDF file with his Covid passport appears there.

Sjöblad can only see advantages in his implant: It is significantly cheaper than networked wristbands and, at 30 to 40 years, lasts much longer. Sjöblad cannot understand that other people see in his chip implants a technology for surveillance, among other things, that scares them.

He is very interested in “the question of privacy“ and has made sure that the chips cannot be located: they are only “activated“ with the help of the smartphone. Sjöblad emphasises that the use of his implanted chips is purely voluntary. If they were to become compulsory for prisoners or residents of old people's homes, for example, “you would immediately see me on the barricades,“ he says.