"Retailers Experiment With Biometric Payment" article

Heyman, Michael Michael.Heyman at sparta.com
Thu Jun 9 11:17:59 EDT 2005


>From
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/08/AR20050
60802335_pf.html>:

  "You can always get a new Social Security number, but 
  you certainly can't get a new thumbprint...," Lee [of 
  EFF] said...Robinson, of BioPay, argues that a personal 
  check written at a grocery store passes through eight 
  people before it is cashed, a process he considers much 
  less secure than a biometric payment, in which the 
  fingerprint image is connected immediately to the 
  user's bank account. "What can I do to hurt you if I 
  have a picture of the tip of your finger? Not much," 
  Robinson said, contending that associating fingerprints 
  with legal troubles is unwarranted. BioPay does not 
  share its biometric data with government agencies, and 
  in fact, the full fingerprints are not stored in the 
  system. Instead, a complex mathematical algorithm is 
  created to represent identifying characteristics of 
  the fingerprint, which are matched to the real thing 
  when a user shows up at a checkout counter.

No discussion on the threat of finger removal...

-Michael

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