(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




Small Grocery Stores Using Biometrics

from the you-have-no-privacy-anywhere dept

If you thought the big grocery store chains were bad with their "loyalty card" programs, watch out for the smaller grocery stores which are quickly adopting biometric technologies like fingerprint scanners to identify customers. The grocery stores say they're doing it in order to prevent against fraud and theft, since they often have to cash checks for their customers, and have lost quite a lot to fraud. The larger grocery stores say they're not yet convinced the technology is worth it, and are afraid that their customers might see it as an "intrusion". Of course, that doesn't mean they won't eventually come around. They quote someone saying that there isn't much risk in having a small grocery store have your fingerprint info, but it's yet another example of how your personal information is being stored by all sorts of companies.

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