NOVEMBER 2017 BCBUSINESS 91
It may be time for a modern update of that
classic scene from old gangster icks. It's the
one where the gang is holed up at the hideout.
"Somebody at dis table," the boss says, looking
around, "is a rat."
The circle of hoods eye each other. Jimmy
the Weasel starts to sweat—an unfortunate
habit. Things are looking bad for Jimmy.
Meanwhile, no one suspects the real spy in
the room. When the cops bust in and round
up the gang, the chief turns to the informer
with a thumbs-up. "Good work," he says.
Sitting quietly in the corner, the cellphone
says nothing. Just doing its job.
Anybody who has ever watched a
true-crime show knows what criminals often
seem to forget—your phone is ratting you out
every minute, tracking your movements and
ruining your alibis. Social media apps like
Snapchat have taken this surveillance to
another level with services such as Snap Map
that allow friends to follow each other's
movements with creepy speciƒcity. Lately this
technological spying has also been entering
the workplace—even those workplaces that
are not seedy apartments full of gun-toting
goombahs on the lam.
Many employees of Wisconsin tech
company Three Square Market have agreed
to have
RFID (radio frequency identiƒcation)
chips implanted in their hands between the
thumb and index ƒnger, allowing them to
enter the building, buy food at the cafeteria,
shoot death rays at attacking supervillains,
INSIDE
Nowhere
to Hide
ILLUSTRATION: KAGAN McLEOD
Technolo‹y can now
track your every
move—but should
employers be allowed
to use it for monitoring
their workers?
by Steve Burgess
Start your engines ... Asia's Silicon Valley? ... Thanks for the muscle memory ... Style watch ... + more
N O V E M B E R 2 0 17
"You don't think about how you're
growing up in an astronaut family
when you're in it" –p.98
Off lıne
E V E R Y B O D Y ' S TA L K I N '
WATERCOOLER
