TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Supermarket: Let Your Fingers do the Paying

Re: Supermarket: Let Your Fingers do the Paying

Ted Klugman (tedklugman@yahoo.no.spam.com.lga.highwinds-media.com)
Wed, 09 Feb 2005 11:05:34 -0500

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:11:01 -0800, George Mitchell <george@m5p.com>
wrote:

> It's easy to forget that, once your fingerprint has been scanned into
> the store's system, now this impossible-to-forget, impossible-to-forge
> identification is stored on their system, ready to be replayed at will
> by anyone with access to their computer.

There's an important thing to consider here -- what is actually being
stored. Finger scan technologies do NOT store your fingerprint -- they
store metadata. Sort of like a one-way hash, this information is
gleaned FROM the fingerprint and the algorithm is not reversable. The
data stored includes details about ridges and valleys, usually from a
handful of points around the fingerprint. You cannot regenerate a
fingerprint from the stored data.

Additionally, finger scans take much less storage -- only a few
kilobytes. Complete fingerprint storage requires much more space.

The downside to using finger scans is that the FAR (false acceptance
rate -- where Alice's finger is determined to actually be Bob's) and
FRR (false rejection rate -- where Alice's finger is determined to not
be hers) are higher.

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