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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

News organizations reported in July 2017 that Three Square Market, a retail technology company in River Falls, Wis., microchipped its employees.

A reference to the chipping was made in an Aug. 26, 2023, social media post by a user with 22,000 followers.

Fifty of the 80 employees at Three Square Market, a provider of self-service break room vending machines, voluntarily agreed to be “chipped,” the reports said.

A microchip the size of a grain of rice was inserted in the hand. It allowed employees to get door access to enter the building, sign into their computer and pay for snacks by waving at a sensor.

In December 2022, Three Square Market was acquired for $41 million by Cantaloupe, a Pennsylvania digital payments and software company.

More than 50,000 people have chosen to receive this type of chipping, according to Zhanna Malekos Smith, a systems engineering professor at the U.S. Military Academy.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

CNBC: Why most of Three Square Market’s employees jumped at the chance to wear a microchip

New York Times: Microchip Implants for Employees? One Company Says Yes

BBC: Wisconsin company Three Square Market to microchip employees

Instagram: Aug. 26, 2023 Instagram post

Business Wire: Cantaloupe Acquires Three Square Market (32M)

The Hill: Human microchip implants take center stage

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.