Biometrics have come to play an increasing role in the things that we do. If you go to Disneyworld, guests have to place their forefinger over a scanner upon entry. This is done so that Disney can try to prevent ticket fraud, especially when it comes to multiday passes. They want to make sure the same person is using the ticket all of those days.
About 90% of Americans now own a smartphone, and 81% have biometrics enabled. But, while they have them enabled, actual usage is considerably lower, with between 40% and 50% of users relying on them for daily tasks. Of the two forms—fingerprints and facial recognition—the latter is only used by 30%. Fingerprints are the preferred method of opening one’s phone.
Biometrics are a great convenience, especially in good lighting. Facial recognition doesn’t work too well in the dark, but otherwise greatly simplifies phone access. No codes. No fingerprints, which can be messy when you are exercising and your fingertips are moist. Just quick access, because your device recognizes you.
I know. There are always security concerns, and technically someone could wreak havoc with your biometrics, which include fingerprints and facial, as well as retina scans. Then again, there are myriad other security concerns just being alive, like when someone hacks into the database at a large company. Identity theft is huge, with 1.1 million reports of it in 2023, and an impact of $43 billion.
I present all this as prelude to a major installation by Amazon in its Whole Foods stores. Palm pay was to be the payment method of the future. Put your groceries on the conveyor belt, and once your total is announced, simply scan the palm of your hand over the scanner, and off you go. Being a technology nerd, I signed up for it early in the game in 2021, and while the nearest Whole Foods is four hours away, I always made sure if I were in Dallas, Oklahoma City, Orlando, or Albuquerque (my frequent haunts), I would use it. It was kind of a novelty, a classroom example of the highest order.
But Amazon is pulling out all of those scanners by summer. Apparently, only a handful of customers were using them.
Last summer I was in one of the Dallas area stores, and since it wasn’t busy, I queried the woman checking my groceries. I wondered how well palm pay was going, and whether customers had accepted it. She told me that only about 15% did, with the vast majority preferring to pay with credit cards. A small percentage pay with cash.
The woman went on to tell me that many customers had voiced their disapproval to her, that they simply did not like the idea of Amazon storing their palm print. I get it, I suppose. To set up palm pay in the first place, you have to spend a couple of minutes letting the scanner photograph your palm from this angle, that angle, and so forth, and then linking it to your Amazon account and preferred payment method.
I always joked that the only way someone could really stick it to me would be to either chop off my right hand and then wave it over the scanner, or handcuff me and make me do the honor. I didn’t see any more risk than all the other dangers present today. In fact, I also joked about having to be careful waving my hand around in a Whole Foods, because I might accidentally buy everyone’s groceries.
This reminds me of when bar codes on consumer packaged goods were introduced in 1974. It was on a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum, and the scene was at a Marsh Supermarket in the Indianapolis area. It took more than a decade before shoppers warmed up to the idea of their groceries being optically scanned. My younger brother was a bag boy at a Chicago area grocery in the early-80s, and even then he witnessed older customers who insisted their groceries be hand-checked lest they become radiated.
Go ahead and roll your eyes. I just did.
Some shoppers also insisted these bar codes—all 12 digits and up to 30 vertical lines of varying thickness—signaled the arrival of Antichrist. They were wrong, and none of the food suffered from radiation poisoning. But hey, people tend to fear the things they least understand.
I suspect that one day biometrics will be used widely, that people will use it knowing there are the same risks inherent as there are with all other types of data stored with our names attached. I bet each and every one of my students has suffered through some form of data breach or fraud. Hopefully by then the good guys will be able to keep the bad guys in check.
Meanwhile, my future shopping trips to Whole Foods will be done old school, tapping my credit card on the POS terminal. Just when I thought I had seen the future, I was kicked back to the present. I’m sure they will still happily take my money, though.
