I remember working on a presentation for the VP of Enterprise Architecture at Target when I was there, and it had one whole slide of info on biometrics! I did a lot of research, actually, and I am really looking forward to more biometric products, especially the prices coming down....
It's simply wonderful for some applications. Like, logging in to your laptop, or your medicine chest, or your cabinet full of nasty cleaner, anything that is not too critical. Laptop is even a stretch, since one can lift your print and root your machine in no time. I mention it since IBM Lenovo has already deployed it.
However, clearly, the applications where it will not work well are the ones where your finger goes where thousands of dirty, snotty, urine-soaked, poo-stained, ketchup-covered, gunk-laden fingers have gone before. Ick!.
"I know what finger I would use for this" list of problems:::
Problem 1: GROSS. Ewwwwwww. It's so, so gross.
Problem 2: Big Brother - oh sure Wal-Mart, take my biometric info - I'm sure you won't be hacked like Visa, Mastercard, Chase, and the list goes on...
Problem 3: Big Brother II - How fast do you think any of these retailers would give up your personal biometric info to the Gestapo Department of Homeland Security? Lickity Split my friend, lickity split.
Problem 4: Totally insecure. You can hack this with Play-Doh....Doh! But really, for any motivated cracker this is child's play.
Rule 1 - use biometrics where it can actually provide a tangible benefit, to save time...but never, ever [not right now] to move money. Why not adopt RFID. credit cards instead? Same time savings, sans the disgusting reader and all the flap about insecurity and privacy. I mean, no flap about privacy that doesn't already exist with RFID.
It's important to note that the Forbes article says these retailers are considering it. Given the pace of deployment of new tech at say...[cough] Target, we won't see it for some time.
But check out what Forbes reports the report as reporting the benefits are [numbers are mine, comments in brackets are mine]:
The report, by Sanford Bernstein analyst Emme Kozloff, found that the use of so-called "electronic wallets"
1. reduces the potential for fraud and identity theft, [no, it actually increases it dumbass!]
2. speeds up the checkout process [RFID anyone? cell phone? credit card? how are these not as fast?]
3. most importantly, lowers transaction processing fees for retailers, improving their bottom line. A 20% reduction in processing costs at big-box discounters like Wal-Mart over the next several years could result in a 3% to 4% increase in earnings per share by 2009, the report estimated. [Well, good to know the most important thing is making more money at the expense of people's health, sanity, privacy, and the list goes on..........]
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