Biometric Payment Essay -- essays research papers

Abstract Paying with your fingerprint coming to a store near you. Buying groceries with a touch of a finger is already being marketed and used in many stores. Finger scanning will soon be ubiquitous, offering speed and convenience to consumers. It will help protect and prevent identity theft. Kids growing up now cannot imagine you needing a cord to use a telephone. Soon they will be saying, â€Å"You mean you had to carry around a piece of plastic or a piece of paper to buy something?† Right now about 500 stores are offering biometric payment and are projected to triple in 2006. The Jetson Age Identity theft has become a major concern for consumers these days and companies are trying to figure out a way to help their customers protect themselves against it. For some time, biometric authentication seemed to be a technology in search of a quality application. Now these two problems are coming together. The idea of linking personal characteristics to a database of settlement sources is beginning to be adopted in grocery stores and retail outlets across the country. What is biometrics? Biometrics refers to the use of an automatic system to verify personal identity through physiological and behavioral characteristics. Biometric payment technology allows the consumer to pay with a touch of a finger on a fingerprint scanner. The fingerprint template is usually linked to a router and transmission media necessary to clear the transaction through an automated clearinghouse. Many of the biometric payment transaction providers are focusing on grocery, home improvement and convenience stores, others have show interest in fast food, car washes and vending operations. Biometric payment providers require compl... ...ier. Biometric payment will reduce fraud and identity theft, speedup checkout and most importantly lower transaction processing fees retailers, improving their bottom line. A 20% reduction in processing costs over the next several years can show a 4% increase in earnings per share. This is making the big-box discounters like Wal-Mart and Costco look at this technology closer. References Boyle, Matthew. (2006). Let your fingers do the paying. Retrieved September 4, 2006, from www.furtune.com. McCarthy, Ellen. (2005) Cash, Charge or Fingerprint. Retrieved September 4, 2006, from www.washingtonpost.com. Wade, Will (2003) Fingerprint Payment Systems Going Live at U.S. Retailers. Retrieved September 4, 2006, from www.americanbanker.com. Wong, Grace (2005) Cash or plastic? How about fingerprint?. Retrieved September 4, 2006, from www.cnnmoney.com.