Interesting... But now we can imagine people cutting off fingers...

That's no lie, Haraya. In South Africa, where many people are illiterate, thumb prints are accepted. Though it's rare, It's been known for family members to retain the thumbs of deceased pensioners in order to continue claiming their benefits.

How about requiring a pulse to be detected?

A combination of "What you have (Smart card), What you know (PIN) and What you are (Biometric)" is the best fool proof ID possible.

Biometrics could be finger print, finger / palm veins / iris.

Only live fingers / palm with blood circulation should be identified. Thus dead people hand should not be usable.

I understand Hitachi and Fujitsu devices have such capabilities.

For more details of recent biometric initiatives in India, see http://ll2b.blogspot.com.

the first two things that popped into my head:
1) "now that gives another meaning to 'giving the finger'!"
2) "worrying about identity theft? now you'll have to worry about finger theft"

bonus:
* where's thefinger.com when we need it?
* now that's digital! get it? (rimshot)

the Mafia custom to cut a false informer`s finger
should be replaced with a new one immediately!!

(greetings haraya

haha this is a bad idea. let me elaberate as to why
"ok sir please place you finger on this pad to complete this transaction.... no wait.. no sir you cant use a finger out of a bag.. sir ... SECURITY!"
XD hehe
i supose they could make it so the sensor could fund a pulse in the thumb or it wouldnt work but to be quite honest they wont do and a normal thug or yob ud still try it anyway.
so i wont go in for this if it ever ends up in englad as by some fluke no japanese people end up with a few less digits.

krisdev made some good points there, and great add'l info. The fingers/prints shouldn't be enough.


and nice one, anpl32... very nice lol!

While everyone's thinking security against I.D. theft, I'm thinking rogue governments and black water agencies planting evidence and sabotage against their perceived enemies. The ones AT HOME.

The right to privacy will be gone. Merchants trade personal information about you all the time. And the government these days is more interested in protecting the corporation than the citizen; and so is the conservative Supreme Court.

With the recent raping of our (U.S.) Constitution, I don't think the technology is a very good idea.

One chain of grocery stores here in Milwaukee has a pay by touch system that automatically ties in to your debit card. I stopped using it, though not because of the fingerprint/identity issue; it's because my bank charges me 30¢ every time I make a debit purchase.

I like cash, there's nothing like having a pile of it under your mattress now is there?

No