Your Fingerprint Buys Groceries in Seattle

lildogie writes: "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that a Thriftway grocery store is installing fingerprint scanners that they will use to identify customers." Each customer's payment method (credit, debit) is then automatically applied at checkout. Haven't they seen Charlie's Angels?

Comments

Patents again

[if(false) revelation]

Indivos has sued Biometric Access for patent infringement.

Kapioski said his store will not have to pay for installing the image readers, but will pay a per-transaction fee to Indivos.

+RANT
Wow, isn't that great. We've seen this done to so many, possibly very important, new inventions: patents! If maybe Indivos could put their greed aside for a while, they could spend time on making products that are competitive and dont need suing. I dont mean to sound like a flamebait (but i probably am), but the fact that this is mentioned in only two sentences in the whole article irritates me: has it really become that commonplace to sue for patent infringement?
-RANT

The actual technology is extremely secure for the moment: everyone will noticed the guy with the photocopy taped to his finger. By the time people start to try to abuse the system, it will already be upgraded, unless it suffers from the same problem as RAMBUS!

Re:How so?

[Anne_Nonymous]

Or do what I did. Get a "happy customer tracking card" under the name of someone else. Perhaps in the name of the Chairman of the Board of Safeway:

Steven A Burd
5918 Stoneridge Mall Road
Pleasanton, CA 94588
925-467-3000

or the Chairman of the Board of Kroger:

Joseph A Pichler
1014 Vine Street
Cinicinnati, OH 45202
513-762-4000

or the Chairman of Winn-Dixie:

A Dano Davis
5050 Edgewood Court
Jacksonville, FL 32254
904-783-5000

You usually aren't asked for ID when applying, and you can still use cash or any other form of payment at the time of purchase.