Fingerprint May Soon Be Needed to Buy Groceries

Fingerprint May Soon Be Needed to Buy Groceries

David M. Bresnahan
Saturday, March 31, 2001

The day will come when you put your finger on a scanning device to prove who you are before you engage in transactions at retail stores, ATMs, banks and even when you buy groceries. One company making such a device is engaged in a pilot project with the nation's largest grocery chain.

Biometric Access Corp. has teamed up with four Kroger stores in the Houston area to test a point-of-sale finger-scanning device for retail transactions. The pilot project has been under way for just over a year and is working well, even though some customers don't like it, according to Kroger spokesman Gary Huddleston.

The Kroger stores are using the device to provide positive identification for payroll check cashing, not for actual sales. Huddleston says customer acceptance is one of the challenges that must be overcome if the device is to be used for all transactions.

"Many customers have seen the value of the security in the system. The finger image is positive identification," Huddleston told NewsMax.com in a phone interview. He said a personal identification number was not very secure.

Will the finger-image scanner become common in all retail stores in the future?

"I'm sure it will," said Huddleston. "Customer acceptance is one challenge, and cost is the other challenge. As soon as we overcome those."

Use of the finger image for check cashing at the four pilot Kroger stores is optional, but Huddleston said most customers use it once they understand how it works and that they can get their check cashed faster if they submit to the finger-image scan

The finger-image scanner can easily be used for all point-of-sale transactions, including the use of checks, credit cards and debit cards, according to Biometric Access Corp. spokesman Hal Jennings. The system is also used for computer security and for clocking workers in and out of work, replacing old-fashioned time cards.

The use of finger-image scans is hailed by some and highly criticized by others.

"My primary objection is to government surveillance of citizens, more so than that of private businesses. However, the trend by retailers and employers to use biometrics to screen customers and employees is alarming," said activist Scott McDonald, who has a Web site (www.networkusa.org/fingerprint.shtml) that fights the use of fingerprints.

Conditioning the Public

He says the use of finger-image scans by retail stores is one way the government can "condition" the public to "accept the same kind of perpetual scrutiny by government using the same technologies."

McDonald told NewsMax.com that he was concerned about an increase in the number of government and business partnerships.

"It is likely the information generated by private biometric scanning by banks, businesses and employers will eventually be linked to, or accessible by, government computers," explained McDonald.

Biometric Access Corp. has also established a contract with H.E. Butt Grocery Co. in Texas "which will result in a large-scale implementation of the SecureTouch On-Time(tm) time and attendance system," Jennings said.

More than 700 units will be installed in stores using biometric fingerprint readers to keep track of 50,000 employees as they clock in and out of work.

Biometric Access Corp. also sold 6,000 similar readers to the state of New York for the Office of Mental Health to be used to protect highly confidential files.

David M. Bresnahan (David@Bresnahan.com) is an independent journalist. An archive of his work is available at http://InvestigativeJournal.com.