MasterCard have revealed a new credit card with an inbuilt biometric fingerprint reader as an additional security means to tackle credit card fraud.
The technology works similar to that used on Smartphones where to issue payment, you must have your finger over the sensor to read your print and confirm payment.
Whilst experts state that the technology is not fool-proof (see many film clichés of removing appendages to trick a reader) it is said to be a sensible and practical utilisation of the technology.
Ajay Bhalla, MasterCard’s head of safety and security has said that the technology would help “to deliver additional convenience and security. It is not something that can be taken or replicated.”
The technology is not without its problems though. For example, every stores/shop which was planning to utilise this would need to have a card reader fitted specifically designed to read the fingerprint information. There is no evidence that this can be ‘retro-fitted’ and given that make stores have only recently upgraded to the ‘contact-less’ style of card reader, there are doubts that any will wish to incur further expense, particularly for example your local coffee shop.
There will also, of course, be questions surrounding the violation of civil liberties, particularly those who do not believe that organisations should hold our fingerprint information.
Whilst we would not expect to see this technology rolled out soon, it is surely only going to be a matter of time.
Your article is factually wrong. When you enroll your fingerprint for the card, the fingerprint gets encrypted and stored on the card. Upon using, you place you finger on the card and insert the card into the machine where normal chip-card electronics read the chipcard. The authentication bit takes place when the card is powered up and thus is should be usable in any current chipcard machine. The fingerprint reader is meant solely to decrypt a user’s details before passing it onto the chipcard machine. If the details are not authenticated, the information does not get passed on. A trial of these cards are currently running in South Africa with a large retail chain, Pick & Pay using the cards at their checkout.
Seems legit.