Fear of cash is driving us into strange places, according to ZD Net:
U.S. chain Thriftway introduced the system, which uses technology from Pay By Touch, in its store in the Seattle area in 2002. It said it now sees thousands of transactions a month using the payment method. Once people have enrolled in the Pay By Touch system, they have their fingerprint scanned as verification of identity at the checkout. They then choose which credit card they want to pay the bill with, having already registered the credit cards with the store.Have that many grannies been ripped off that we need to sell the farm to the data miners?Thriftway President Paul Kapioski said rather than shying away from the technology because of concerns about protecting their privacy, customer demand ensured that the biometric payment system made it past the pilot stage. The fingerprint payment system was initially scheduled for a 60-day trial, but "people were quick to warm up to it...after 60 days, we made it part of our payment package," he said at the Retail Fraud Conference in London on Tuesday. "We found people came to the store because of this--lots of senior citizens felt more secure not carrying money to the store," Kapioski said. "The major concern is 'biometric, fingerprint, what's it going to be used for?'...Once (customers) understood what it was used for, it became a nonissue," he added...
The main business driver for biometrics, he said, was cost; it enables the retailer to shave cents off the average cost of an electronic payment transaction. With the biometric system, customers are encouraged to use their debit card, which cost the company almost half as much as the same payment by credit card, for example.
Comments
Hans - February 4, 2005 3:51 PM
'cause he wears black.... oh, that cash. I thought you meant Johnny.
'nee - February 4, 2005 10:08 PM
Cash is bad because it can't be tracked, and thus customers can't be statistically analyzed so that inventory levels can be better predicted to reduce warehousing and staffing costs. Already some companies yank your name from your bank card, not to mention your credit card. This is just better. Now they can tell what you pick up and put back, too.
Alan - February 4, 2005 11:28 PM
Cash is loverly that way - almost as good as stealing now. All you leave is your transaction (imagine - not even your name!) and that offends the mod'ren way.
Lisa Howard - February 5, 2005 7:22 AM
I'm finding myself increasingly irritated by your bad attitude! Why don't you like freedom?!!!
Lisa Howard - February 5, 2005 7:35 AM
On a related note: When I read the New Yorker here in the wilds of Hungary I always notice and feel slightly creeped out by the citibank ads. The ads show some old lady at a tatoo parlor and the tag line reads something like : we thought it was weird too (meaning: so we stopped payment 'cause it's obviously some kind of credit card fraud). Hahaha aren't the people at citibank nice the way they keep second guessing Gladys's purchases. And it's a good thing too otherwise someone could be using her credit card! Aren't they hip and thoughtful?
The reality is a lot dumber. What it means is people like my old dad who's no less sane than the Prime Minister and about the same age gets his credit card cut off whenever he heads off out of town on some unanticipated errand. Of course he finds out that he has no credit card just at that crucial moment when he realises that he has brought no other method of payment.
Lisa Howard - February 5, 2005 10:05 AM
This is the ad. I've posted it above as my web page.