Forget paying with your phone… just use your finger

Forbes magazine reported that the grocery chain, Piggly Wiggly and Pay By Touch are going to provide just that for their customers, the ability to pay by touch. Customers' fingerprints would be scanned at the checkout counter and the scanned image would then be pre-linked to their checking or credit card accounts.

I can hear the privacy-crazy people now: "You mean they keep a record of your fingerprint?" Well, not exactly. Here's how it works: When you first enroll, the system uses an image of your fingerprint to find between 35 and 40 points of distinction on the fingerprint to create a unique mathematical algorithm--essentially a string of numbers. That algorithm is then encrypted and sent to a secure data center run by IBM. The only time it's retrieved is when you present your finger to pay again.

I am a big proponent of voting online. Many critics are cautious about this because they are worried about fraud. Well, if every computer had a touch screen and the ability to distinguish fingerprints, why wouldn’t we vote online? And for those who still don’t have computers in their homes or that feature on their computers, they could go down to the voting station and use a similar machine there. It would really speed up the process and I think increase turnout because it would be just too easy. Again, making it easier on the user will make them more willing to participate.