B.T.W

By Eileen Yu

By the way, ZDNet Asia has more to say

No cash? Show me your finger

Posted in By The Way by Eileen Yu on 2007/03/16 13:26:09

weekly roundup Credit card giant Visa has declared that by 2012 credit and debit cards would
become cheaper
and more convenient than cash, and boldly anticipated that retailers could start making customers pay a surcharge if they paid with cash.

I think Visa got it half right. Yes, cash may indeed be on its way out. But, I think the same can be said for credit and debit cards. Instead, what's coming up is--your finger.

Citibank Singapore has been driving a marketing campaign to encourage customers to use its new biometric payment service, dubbed Pay By Touch. Officially launched late last year, consumers can swipe their finger to pay for their beverage at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or booze at Zouk. According to Citibank, millions in the U.S. already use Pay By Touch.

I'm a sucker for credit, and other forms of plastic cards, because each offers rebates and discounts at various dining and shopping outlets that I frequent. I use a different one each time to get additional discounts at the petrol kiosk Caltex, department store Robinsons and phone accessories at M1 outlets, and to earn rebates when I get my groceries at Carrefour.

That's four credit cards already, and I haven't listed the other discount cards that I have crammed into my wallet--or "the brick", as some of my friends call it. If I could leave all the plastic at home, it'll be a load off my shoulder, literally, because they do feel heavier in my bag after a long day.

But, for biometrics to take off as a viable payment option in Singapore, or anywhere else in Asia for that matter, it cannot be supported only by a handful of merchants. You can't exactly leave your cash and credit cards behind if your neighborhood corner shop doesn't accept your fingerprint as a form of payment.

With identity theft and fraud on the rise, biometric security tools may just be the answer--though you could very well end up with a blistered finger at the end of the day.

So, where does that leave credit card companies if we no longer need plastic in future? They still have a role to play as a payment processing facility, but more importantly, they need to continue to focus on providing better customer service. Time to waive all annual subscription fees, permanently? In addition, banks and other financial players will need to beef up their security infrastructure to ensure all the data that's collected to facilitate biometric transactions are well protected.

Now, if only IT products have fingerprints, too.

Would you pay by finger?

In other headlines this week, check out a new wireless R&D facility in Singapore and find out why Microsoft says Google is mad. Indian services giant TCS finds a new friend in Singapore, while Intel looks toward China.

Disclaimer:
Views and opinions expressed in this blog are the author's, and do not necessarily represent those of ZDNet Asia.

Talkback 4 comments

I look forward to the day when I don't have to carry my wallet, lose my wallet, replace my cards because I lost my wallet, or have someone take a cell phone picture of my card or check. This sounds great. Come on retailers...bring it on! Let's let our finger do the shopping.
Posted by anonymous on Saturday, March 17 2007 05:36 AM

Yes I would Pay by finger (thumb) if I had a chance to do so
Posted by Malcolm Gair on Monday, March 19 2007 10:42 AM

Yes I would like to pay by finger at all the major department and grocery stores. This will cut down the need to carry so many credit cards in order to enjoy the rebates or discounts that these cards offer.
And I don't mind carrying a bit of cash or Nets (EFTPOS) card for those smaller shops that does not accept Pay by finger.
Posted by Low Tze Hui on Monday, March 19 2007 10:43 AM

With the rate of Read Errors now prevalent among high end biometric scanners, the cost of these scanners, and the ability to falsify fingerprints using �Play Doh� and other off the shelf clays and plastics, I cannot see the value in throwing an entire industry at biometrics alone.

Further, in an incident of fraud or ID Theft, how does one prove that ones fingerprint was misappropriated over the phone with a customer support mind-set that is still very human and very much focused upon not proving my innocence?
How do you �reissue� me a fingerprint instead of a new credit card/smart card?

Further, once my fingerprint is scanned and stored does everyone �store it� the same way-encrypt it- such that I do not have to re-register with several different firms? (Do I want Russia, China, Iran, Sudan, the CIA storing my fingerprints?)

Has anyone decided who owns my fingerprint once I am registered on a particular system and what is their duty/liability to guard something that is a �likeness� of me and from which DNA can now be extracted (DNA can be extracted from the oils on our fingers). I mean, from a photograph, no such DNA can be extracted but a fingerprint is a true �image� of my being, being a part of me that like a photograph, changes with time organically and must be �copied� but is difficult to functionally disguise through makeup or by putting on a wig. (Is that a new industry- finger wigs?)

Finally, there are a limited number of patterns human fingerprints can assume-it is a large number but it is not THAT large.
What happens when a living persons fingerprint is identical to that of another person who has died but not been deleted from �the system�.
Is the fingerprint now the common property of a corporation once the person who owned it dies?

Can there be or should there be an organization that tracks all fingerprints eternally and universally thus be aware of a �recurring� finger pattern but authorizing its existence for re-issuance?

Until these issues and more are dealt with, no biometrics for me!

Posted by Lord Tutinean on Monday, March 19 2007 10:45 AM

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About the blogger

Eileen Yu

Eileen Yu began covering the IT industry when Asynchronous Transfer Mode was still hip and e-commerce was the new buzzword. These days, she gets stirred up over issues concerning Internet regulation, intellectual property rights and software patents, online privacy and data protection. Eileen is senior editor at ZDNet Asia, where she oversees the business tech news site.