It has come to the attention of Tech Garden’s Innovative Services Task Force (ISTF) that a new and innovative method of payment is quickly gaining popularity in recent years for its ability to provide more security and efficiency to its users. The process is called biometric payment and it relies on a biometric authentication system that enables purchasers to simply scan their fingerprints to authenticate purchases and have their owing balance deducted directly from their bank account, saving time and improving security. Although there exist several different biometric systems that scan facial structure and voice, fingerprinting is the safest and most distinctive and permanent method.

This project, although currently being in its early stages, has demonstrated potential promise and value. Adopting this technology would not replace credit and debit cards but would simply provide an additional method of payment for consumers. The benefits that accompany harnessing this technology are as follows:

• Cost effective for merchants
• Heightened security and fraud preventive
• Time efficient transactions
• Less cards and cash to carry around
• No pin to remember

The fact that this technology eliminates debit card fees, saves time and improves security is good enough reason to closely consider implementation of this process.

This technology does bring forth a few disadvantages; the biggest of which is the concern that consumers’ fingerprints end up in the wrong hands, causing unease towards ones privacy. The system however does not store fingerprints in its database but rather uses encrypted numbers specifically assigned to each unique fingerprint to authorize payment.

As the Innovative Services Task Force continues to research, develop and test this technology for future implementation in Tech Garden’s facilities, more benefits seem to be surfacing over