Biometric Payment Arrives in a Store Near You

"A chain of Florida convenience stores has begun accepting fingerprints as payment, using a biometric system called Pay By Touch. The company is a Bay-area startup backed by $130 million in VC cash and the acquisition of BioPay, a Virginia-based biometrics firm that's already done $7 billion in European transactions. From the article: 'The company is a bit puzzled by customer privacy fears. After all, they say, how can using a unique fingerprint for identification be riskier to theft than a plastic card, key chain token, or account number? ...The fingerprint image recorded is not the same as those collected by the federal government or law enforcement.'"

Comments

Uhh...

[Poromenos1]

how can using a unique fingerprint for identification be riskier to theft than a plastic card, key chain token, or account number?

Because you leave them on everything you touch?

Re:Uhh...

[MarkByers]

And you can't cancel (change) your fingerprint if someone finds out what it is.

Re:Uhh...

[eclectro]

And you can't cancel (change) your fingerprint if someone finds out what it is.

And you can't stop the production of gummy bears

I could probably travel the world on a single package of gummy bears and a set of prints lifted from the sides of soda cans, tossed in the trash outside the convenience store.

Just remember though, outlaw gummy bears, and only outlaws will have gummy bears.

Company pledges

[plover]

From TFA: The company pledges not to sell or rent personal information, or access to it.

I read this line too and it made me want to scream. "Company pledges" are worth exactly shit these days. "We pledge to protect your privacy and retain the right to alter this pledge at any time." "We pledge to never sell or distribute all of this personal information that we insist on gathering, really, unless we're bought out by another company that doesn't pledge this."

I don't want pledges. I don't want them to have this info, period. I don't want to receive marketing from them any more than I want it from third parties.

Now, if there was accountability behind these pledges, such as "We are bonded for a $10,000 per customer coverage to never leak any customer information" or "Under penalties of perjury with a minimum of five years prison time to be served by each member of the entire Board of Directors, we pledge to never sell or otherwise distribute any personal information collected by us. Furthermore, under threat of the same penalites we pledge to use this information only for verification of your account, and never for marketing purposes of any sort."

Those are some pledges that I'd be slightly more inclined to believe.

Re:Company pledges

[sbaker]

It's hard to imagine anything that's more personally sensitive than SWIFT banking transactions - and they gave those records up to the US government in no time flat!

These days you have to assume that any item of data you give to anyone is insecure from that point on.

Re:Fingerprints are less reliable ...

[demigod186]

This is true about the 1-2% of the pop. Those people don't produce enough oil on their skin.

Re:Others use it, too

[mark-t]

The 7 digit number is probably there to conform to the normal standard of requiring two pieces of ID for confirmation of who you are. The 7 digit number is one, and your fingerprint is the other. This not only confirms your identity but also confirms that their records are accurate with respect to any identification that you have previously provided them with. If something doesn't match up with their records, they can ask you for details and confirm your identity another way before processing your payment.