It's here!
Good or bad, biometrics has hit the retail markets. I'm not talking about those keyboards that have a thumbprint reader to unlock your PC either. I mean that there are retail establishments that are testing pay-by-thumbprint, <i>right now</i>! There's <a target="_blank" href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/18/0230239&mode=thread&tid=126… entry on Slashdot </a>that has links to both the good, and the bad, side to this technology. Frankly, it's the dark side that I find the most interesting.
Ever seen <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JL78/fantasistnet">Minority Report</a>? If not, you need to see it for just this. Picture being tracked through a shopping mall via biometrics, with advertising targeted to you and calling you by name. To borrow an overused marketing phrase, it'll take spamming to a "whole new level". Ubiquitous computing? Forget that. Ubiquitous advertsing. That's a more likely scenario by far. I shudder at what this will do to our world. And, I can already see a steep rise in amputation related crimes. You thought identity theft was bad in our time? Wait until people are stealling <b><i>thumbs</i></b>!
(And, yes, I posted this on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ryumaou.com/hoffman/netgeek/">my other blog </a>first.)
- Log in to post comments