1984--Biometric Buying

To the uninitiated, the use of unique biological characteristics to identify a person conjures uncomfortable feelings of a looming, sinister Big Brother, but in fact, biometric technology has the potential to simplify our lives with less chance of fraud and identity theft than a pocket full of plastic cards. "Our customers have embraced the new technology and the benefits have become increasingly obvious to all," says Rita Postell, manager of community and employee relations for the U.S. supermarket retailer Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. Inc. "Speed, convenience and security is now offered with the touch of a finger," she says. Piggly Wiggly Carolina is in the process of rolling out a fingerprint biometric system, Pay By Touch, throughout its network of 114 grocery stores in South Carolina and coastal Georgia. Postell says the company thought the technology would draw new customers to the store, but they've found their regular customers use it the most, with a welcome result: "Our regular customers have increased their purchases by 12 per cent." Although a number of retailers in the United States have been using biometric identification to cash payroll cheques for their customers, Piggly Wiggly is the first retailer in the United States to embrace biometric payment technology chain-wide, according to Pay By Touch marketing director Shannon Riordan. "A lot of things have converged to make it something that many retailers are very interested in now," Riordan says. She says public angst about security, the increased speed and accuracy of the technology and its dramatically declining cost, as well as the desire to improve efficiency and customer convenience, all contribute to the appeal. Retailers are also interested in the technology's easy fit with loyalty and age verification programs. Pay By Touch is one of a number of biometric payment systems vying for retailers' attention. Developed by a technology company in San Francisco called, not surprisingly, Pay By Touch, the system works by matching your scanned fingerprint to one you provide during enrolment. During enrolment customers also supply identification and information for the financial accounts they would like to access over the system. To make a purchase, customers place their finger over a scanner at checkout. Then they enter a "search number" (usually their phone number) on to a keypad, which helps the computer find stored biometric information so it can more quickly match it to the finger scan. Once the customer is identified, they are linked to their financial and loyalty accounts. The keypad allows them to select the account they wish to use — chequing, credit or debit. After approval, the customer's reward points are recognized automatically, eliminating "the fumble factor" of digging about for cash or plastic and a loyalty card. Advocates of biometric systems like this say a consumer's financial information is more secure in this arrangement than ever before; no one can look over the customer's shoulder as they type in PIN numbers, there's no card to lose or steal, and the personal and account information on cheques is no longer circulated among all the people handling them during processing..... www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1110754209077&call_pageid=970599119419