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Pay By Touch Goes Online

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sort-of dept.

Max Fomitchev writes to tell us that Pay By Touch, the biometric identification service, has announced an online version of their service. While currently the only implementation of this service is in the brick-and-mortar storefront of Star Markets grocery stores, the company hopes that online vendors will start signing up soon.

8 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Finally! by Corbets · · Score: 4, Funny

    Finally, the world of "Back to the Future" is coming to us! Now if I can just get that hoverboard I've always wanted....

    1. Re:Finally! by sugapablo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Back to the Future? What kind of /. nerd are you? First thing that came to my mind is Quark handing me a data pad for my thumbprint.

      Now if I can just get into one of his holosuites and take a spin at "Vulcan Love Slave 2: The Revenge"!

      --
      Sugapablo
    2. Re:Finally! by JanneM · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not sure how hard that really is, but I'm sure it can't be too out of the question, specially if some con artists wants to pull it off that badly.

      Fingerprints are not hard at all; it's been done, and done well already. You can google for detailed instructions.

      Basically, you scan the fingerprint by any means you have (it depends on how and where you could lift it). Print it on transparent OH film, then use it to etch a negative print on circuit board - this just requires standard stuff you can get in any electronics store of course. Use that negative as the mold for a latex positive; in the simplest case, just dab a solid layer of latex on your fingertip and press on the mold until the latex hardens.

      The beauty, if that's what you want to call it, is that once you have one scanned print, you can trivially duplicate and send it as a black and white image to anybody, anywhere who wants to use your print.

      Fingerprints very seriously suck for identification nowadays.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  2. Grocery Stores? by JonathanR · · Score: 4, Funny

    What about strip clubs?

  3. dinger? by adam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    FTFA: "allows making online purchases with a slide of a dinger across the scanner" (emphasis mine)

    really.. a dinger..? you don't say...

    The whole fingerprint-for-payment-at-the-store thing has been debated here plenty before, so i'll steer clear of it.. but TFA (well, TFblogpost) is centered around Pay By Touch launching a service that lets you scan your fingerprint at home and autopay at various online websites with a simple swipe of your finger. I don't know who steered them down this path, but they should be fired.. promptly.

    I can recall several dotbombs that had this same business model (an e-wallet that had all your info in it already so all you needed to do was purchase from participating vendors and a username/password/whatever was all you'd need to make each purchase), and they all failed miserably. Anyone remember flooz? Maybe i'm just a cynic and these guys will have a fresh new approach that will catch on like wildfire.. but it seems a nonstarter to me, since none of the failed dotcoms so much as required you to have a biometric scanner in your home.

    --
    I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
  4. Privacy Concerns ? by Davemania · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Inevitably, this issue will come up. Traditionally, if your credit card or bank card is compromised, you can simply cancel it and acquire a new one but what about biomatric data used for identification ?

  5. Dumbasses. by wfberg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They say: "Your finger is unique to you, which means only you can access your financial accounts. The Pay By Touch service helps protect you from physical or identity theft. Because there's nothing to carry, there's nothing to be lost or stolen."

    Really?

    What about the fingerprint information you're evidently (there's nothing to carry) sending over the wire? No way to intercept that huh? How about the fingerprints you leave on just about everything you touch? No way to lift those off of that surface and to use them on a scanner, in the case of on-line purchases, a scanner that's right there beside you without anyone looking over your shoulder to see you're actually using your own finger and not some copy made out of gummy bears.

    --
    SCO employee? Check out the bounty
  6. Repudiation? by Indy+Media+Watch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If there is a fraudulent transaction, and someone can argue (albeit wrongly) "the only way the transaction could have happened is with your fingerprint" - won't this make it harder to dispute a charge?

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    Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet