You can change your credit card. Change your bank. Change your name. And for the sheep who are so inclined, even change your underwear.
But you can't change your biometric data.
Now suppose some bad guy cuts off your hand at the wrist. They can then produce that bloody item at the POS terminal and use it to pay for goods. At this point you have just become the victim of a serious crime because you are now responsible for payment.
given the general attitudes towards privacy and biometric data here on HN, i honestly can't tell if people trying to pay for groceries with bloody severed limbs is a concern you legitimately have or if this is satire.
Comparing this system to, for instance a chip card reader, the palm print is significantly less secure because it uses a single factor (something you are) versus a chip which requires the customer to both have the card with the chip present for payment, and to know the PIN in order to authenticate. Or your phone for example, if someone steals your fingerprint (or even models your face), they still need to have your physical phone to unlock it. With this palm scanning tech, all you need is the palm and you can pay for anything anywhere because there's no secondary confirmation
Then you would dispute the charge and have your own geolocation data or the store's video footage to substantiate your claim. This is a grocery store, not a diamond merchant.
If you happen to have attracted the attention of this master counterfeiter who has duplicated your palm you would simply have the option of not registering your new card with the system.
If this happens on a large scale, yes, the whole project is doomed.
If you find that someone has (somehow) managed to duplicate your palm print then you probably do not want to enroll with that option for payments in the future.
The issue is once your biometric data is compromised you have no recourse to regenerate it. Your solution is you just don't get to participate in these features anymore.
You're back in the same place you are already. If this putative palm print duplication technology becomes widely available then people will stop building technology that depends on palm prints.
As has been repeatedly pointed out, the risk lies with the merchants and the issuing banks (at least in the U.S.) for credit card payments.
EDIT: and, at least in the U.S. again, no-one is going to be able to force you to use this technology; there will always have to be an alternative mechanism because there are people with no hands, and a system that required them would be a massive ADA liability.
You'd probably even have an easier time proving your hand was stolen it since your hand is missing.
It's still a problem that if someone compromises your biometric data they'll have full access forever. In practice that isn't a huge problem because it's still really hard to do.
Changing your name does not change your credit history. Losing an illusory value you have never owned by adopting a new technology, that's not a real problem.
There are numerous reports of people being locked out of their biometric accounts after an injury. If you burn yourself cooking and have a blister on your hand you may not be able to go buy first aid supplies at Whole Foods afterward. Alternatives are required.
Like, it feels like the worst way to buy groceries.
The cases in Malaysia with the cut off thumbs to start a Mercedes make sense but for groceries the concept is outlandish.
At that point, you're just cutting off my hand for the sake of it.
They kidnap your spouse/child/parent and threaten to murder them unless you go through with the transaction. They hold a gun to your head while you transfer the contents of your bitcoin wallet to them. They beat you with a rubber hose until you give them your safe combination.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/12/polit...