I’ll trade you my identity for a hamburger

The Boston Globe had an article today about students paying for their school lunches using their fingerprints. This is a great example of a subject that people love to hate, or hate to love. My initial reaction is a positive one: I find biometrics intriguing, and see them as being a great way of slowly introducing more convenience in everyday life courtesy of our eyes, fingers, and voices.

Of course, unlike items like credit cards we use for everyday convenience, we can’t exactly cut up our fingers if we wish to be rid of them. Being permanently identified by something that I would rather not part with is a tad concerning, especially for anyone who has read Orwell or watched a movie like Minority Report. In Minority Report, the movie starts with showing how advertisements are targeted at people walking down the street, just by scanning their retinas. Those same scanners are later used to track a fugitive (an innocent fugitive at that).

…back to the student fingerprinting, the company who provides the technology claim it’s completely safe, and that the student’s data isn’t even stored on the local computers. Assuming that’s true, it’s very good to hear as I wouldn’t trust that kind of information with anyone at a public school. Also, it’s important to note that the program is completely voluntary, so students don’t have to use their fingerprints unless they want to.

To be honest, I really feel as though this is a necessary evil that will become more and more prevalent as technology advances. Fingerprints are a convenient, secure (at least for the moment) way of identifying someone, and with the increasing amount of credit card fraud these days it’d be nice to be guaranteed someone’s identity in the process of a transaction.

I also happen to be a bit generous when it comes to trusting Big Brother, and would have to think for awhile if I would really be against fingerprinting everyone. So if the first step is paying for a hamburger with my thumb, sign me up.