I heard this story about Japanese scientists working to turn your fingernails into data storage. They started to do this with a mind to replacing credit cards. There's a more complete story at nature.com, but it might be a subscriber-only link.
Some people have reacted negatively to this, but I don't see the problem. I would be receptive to the idea of having a fingernail-credit card myself.
What I'm less comfortable with is what's increasingly happening here in the United States, namely the use of fingerprints for financial transactions. I think it's okay if other people want to do it, but I've always had this idea that once your fingerprints are in the system, your privacy is forever compromised. The fingernail thing is something I keep with me that doesn't leave me vulnerable the way my fingerprints do.
But I'm going to lose this one. Fingerprint scanning is being tested in lots of places, and because of the rise in identity theft, I think biometric verifications for financial transactions are an inevitability. I guess for me, that's just another reason to hate identity thieves. According to CNN's poll, 52% of respondents feel comfortable using a fingerprint to purchase an item, and 48% are with me. So this ought to shape up into an interesting debate.
I think the fingernail thing has the ugly potential to turn into GPS, and I would oppose it vehemently.
I wouldn't be against the fingerprint thing except that I know the marketeers of the world will start using it to retrace your steps to see if they can figure out how to sell more stuff to you or otherwise influence your behavior, as with the Internet trash ranging from tracking cookies to spyware does now.
Since I know they and others will abuse it, I'm against it. I also know I'm a pretty lone wolf pushing a 10-ton boulder uphill on this.
Posted by: Tom Blumer | July 24, 2005 at 08:07 PM