Pay Bills with your Fingerprint

Rülzheim - Edeka is the world's first grocery store who is using this new method of billing customers: The customer, after he has purchased his groceries, has to place his finger on a scanner to get the printed receipt in order to receive his merchandise. Edeka then transfers the amount invoiced from the customer's bank account.

IT-Works, the company that invented this new system, first scans a sample of a fingerprint and stores the data. Instead of storing a picture or image of the finger, it somehow scans numerous points on the finger print and mathematically stores these points electronically, using a secure protocol. "The procedure is completely unproblematic from a data security view point", said the inventor of the system, Ulrich Kipper. The original fingerprint cannot be reproduced. Subsequently, the customer authorizes Edeka Southwest to the deduction of the outstanding invoices from his current bank account. If the test runs prove positive, Edeka Southwest will forward the procedure to its independent buyers for tuning, said Edeka spokesman Gert Duschan.

In principle, one can view such biometric procedures as positive, said an adviser for Telecommunications at the Federal Association of the Consumer Centers and Consumer Federations (Berlin), Michael Bobrowski. Because it concerns itself primarily with sensitive data, the implementation must be legally regulated. It has a "fundamental problem" with the finger print. "The fingerprint can be found everywhere in the world. It can be stolen at any time by shady personnel and ultimately such misuse would become criminal acts." Biometric transactions are better when the customers are actively engaged in the process, such as writing their signature.

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Link is www.kurier.at...

So, there you have it. The world's first grocery store that can charge the customer by scanning his or her fingerprint.
NVBadBoy

Let me guess you can only use your right hand?

This could also be used to see if they have over due books or movies too i guess, and also, it could math it with police records real quick and if hes charged with murder or something, it will bring more bad guys down.

Good find.

...But, wooowooo, it's starting.

The article does not go into details as far as which finger or digit you'll have to press on the scanner. As far as the enhancement of the system goes, it would all depend on the success rate. If the public thinks that this is the new way to do their shopping, then other retailers, as well as law enforcement, would probably like to get their hands on this proprietary database. I do see your point, where scofflaws could get caught immediately upon paying their bill. Then again, these crooks can always send in a buddy of theirs to do they shopping or other activity.

One thing is certain, though. The finger print scanner is just the input device. How much longer until an antenna and a RFID chip embedded below the skin will be used to deduct money from your account. The possibilities are practically endless.

NVBadBoy

The question is though, how easy is it to forge something like a fingerprint, and what anti-fraud countermeasures do they have in place to stop this happening?

[edit on 13/3/05 by Creative_Seeker]

not good i am the only one that read revilations

guys this sounds alot to me like the make of the beast

the end is near

This store is a test chain for a much wider deployment of this technology (or evil Plot )

Rueters has an article about the larger impact.

Credit card company executives told the 2005 Reuters Banking Summit this week they were developing programs for sophisticated scanning techniques once envisioned in movie plots set in faraway centuries.

Instead of swiping a card at a local grocery or shoe store, payment could be made by a biometric scan of a thumb or eyeball which links up to data on a consumer's bank account, not unlike security measures already adopted by U.S. airports and immigration authorities.

"We're testing several different options ... it's very promising," Visa USA chief executive Carl Pascarella said."

David Nelms, CEO of Discover Financial Services, said the company was also experimenting with fingerprint-based technology as a way of simplifying the transaction process and making it more secure.

Here is another article about the test store.

Finger Prints For Food

An Edeka store in the southwest German town of Ruelzheim has piloted the technology since November and now the company plans to equip its stores across the region.

"All customers need do is register once with their identity card and bank details, then they can shop straight away," said store manager Roland Fitterer.

The scanner compares the shopper's fingerprint with those stored in its database along with account details.

Edeka bosses said they were confident the system could not be abused. The chance of two people having the same fingerprint is about one in 220 million.

Hum......................wonder what the "other details" are that are stored? But the Edeka bosses say there will probably not be abuse, so we will all be O.K. right?
[/sarcasm]