Amir Mizroch reports at the WSJ that a PayPal executive who works with engineers and developers to find and test new technologies, says that embeddable, injectable, and ingestible devices are the next wave in identification for mobile payments and other sensitive online interactions. Jonathon Leblanc says that identification of people will shift from “antiquated” external body methods like fingerprints, toward internal body functions like heartbeat and vein recognition, where embedded and ingestible devices will allow “natural body identification.” Ingestible devices could be powered by stomach acid, which will run their batteries and could detect glucose levels and other unique internal features can use a person’s body as a way to identify them and beam that data out. Leblanc made his remarks during a presentation called Kill all Passwords that he’s recently started giving at various tech conferences in the U.S. and Europe, arguing that technology has taken a huge leap forward to “true integration with the human body.” But the idea has its skeptics. What could possibly go wrong with a little implanted device that reads your vein patterns or your heart's unique activity or blood glucose levels writes AJ Vicens? "Wouldn't an insurance company love to use that information to decide that you had one too many donuts—so it won't be covering that bypass surgery after all?"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SubiculumHammer on Thursday April 23 2015, @06:19AM
Fuck. No.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @06:47AM
Yeah, passwords might be a pain in the ass and insecure in many situations, but at least they don't necessarily lead to a privacy nightmare like most of the alternatives do.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday April 23 2015, @07:34AM
Just go for the gold standard. Tattoo on the forehead. The only mark you'll need.
Or so I've read.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday April 23 2015, @02:05PM
Shouldn't that Mark be on the head and right arm? And be necessary to engage in commerce?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @11:55AM
Well, the one you swallow might literally become a pain in the ass if it unintentionally leaves the stomach.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Thursday April 23 2015, @06:47AM
What happens when the glucose levels or other parameters change over time ?
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 23 2015, @06:49AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday April 23 2015, @06:49AM
If the stakes are high enough for the robber, instead of having your fingers chopped [news24.com]**, you may finish with:
* having your eyes gouged out (retinal scan)
* having your stomach ripper open (for an ingestible device)
* having your skin cut in multiple places in a frantic search for an implanted sliver of silicon
* having denied you access in case of a cold (voice recognition); cardiac arrhythmia - or just after jogging (hearth beat); copious lunch raising insulin level
* where exactly are those veins which's pattern need to be recognized? Some place which can be affected by a bruise? In my retina?
What the hell is wrong with a passphrase?
--
**the linked article says:
To which I immediately replied in my mind: "Hell yeah! Does the robber knows it before chopping all my fingers of one by one? No thanks, you won't catch me among early adopters.".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:03AM
You cannot make money from them. Well, not legally at least.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:07AM
Voice-prints? We each have a rather unique vocal tract, which shows up in spectrum analyses. Having us "read" a "captcha" would probably do the trick. You might even say things a special way if you wanted a way to tell the machine you were under duress.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:39AM
That would work if the captcha is entirely known to the system and it would need full knowledge of the captcha for it to recognize your duress.
These days, this does not necessarily hold true. Haven't you noticed that website shows captchas that exist of 2 pieces: one which is known and another which isn't known yet and is a picture of someone's house number.
Us bioforms have been co-opted by the website to do its work for them. For free... Now go back and generate ad revenue for us, humanoid!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 23 2015, @01:18PM
Hoarse/croacky voice (aka laryngitis [wikipedia.org] - can lead to temporary voice lost)?
ATM refusing to get you money when you need them the most to buy medicines?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday April 24 2015, @01:29AM
Good point.
I was thinking of how much we recognize voices, and how I have a voice recognition module that is very speaker-specific.
Trying to find unfakeable biometric identifiers is a pretty tall order. Even DNA, as someone intent on impersonating you can offer a sample of your DNA that you unwittingly let get away from you, like hair roots left in a brush or the like. Eyes and fingerprints can be photographed and replicas capable of fooling the reader fabricated. Voices can be overheard, recorded, and played back. Its hard to fool the human security guard who knows you, but even that can be tricked or bribed.
I do not think the "chip implanted in the right hand or forehead" is the answer either. There will always be programmable chips out there which will respond as programmed.
Something one knows seems to be the strongest unique identifier available. As long as that something can be kept private.
This issue is like catching a tiger by the tail.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @06:51AM
So imagine I take a course at my local community college, just because they are full of community college hotness and teachers with lots of chili peppers on "Rate my Professor and get Malware Installed". Does that mean that Windows will no longer recognize me as being me, and decline to boot? Yea! Free at last, dear God almighty, free at last!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:15AM
Or the ATM will not recognize you and decline to give you money.
And be sure that as soon as a significant fraction of people have it, other uses of it will be found. For example, storing your medical data on it; after all, wouldn't it be great if at an emergency, the doctor would be guaranteed to get the important data from a device that you're guaranteed to have with you? Well, unless someone hacked in and modified that data …
Or maybe it will one day double as credit card. In that case, I suggest implanting in either the right hand (easiest handling) or in the forehead (a part of the body you are unlikely to lose in a non-deadly accident). ;-)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:21AM
Alright then, read the headline, swallowed my Password. What do I do now? Guys? I need to log in! How am I supposed to get my password? It was always right there on the post-it-note on the bottom the keyboard, but now you told me to swallow it!!! Wait a minute! Is this like that Frogger dashboard banner thing that I downloaded a few years ago? Oh, my, hackers! They are so smart!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @04:55PM
If you accidentally swallow your password, just shit on your keyboard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @11:16AM
Looks like it's time to recycle a golden oldie
https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/rectium.html [gnu.org]
(Score: 2, Disagree) by naubol on Thursday April 23 2015, @11:52AM
Wouldn't insurance companies love to use the data off your fitbit? Don't life insurance companies already take blood? What about your "steps per day" from your phone, or your quotidien travel habits?
I have an idea, let's all be paranoid luddites every time some new tech concept is discussed. Electricity is clearly too much of an enabler for autocracts and we should get rid of it.
We could consider that this added information may make us less likely to purchase donuts in the future, adding to our lives. We can reduce our reliance on health insurance by reducing our health risk, and new technologies which seem to assist them in weeding us out also could assist us, potentially, in weeding them out.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @12:58PM
The insurance company argument is just used to illustrate one potential unintended consequence of gathering personal data just to do commerce. It's called "discussion".
Oh, and if you're gonna try sound smart by replacing "daily" with "quotidian", at least spell it right.
(Score: 2) by naubol on Thursday April 23 2015, @10:07PM
What about the unexpected consequences? We are resisting change out of fear. If all that our imagination can come up with is Orwellian control schemes, then just like an Orwellian character, we are now trapped by the language of Orwell. It isn't discussion, it is an echo chamber.
(Score: 4, Touché) by ticho on Thursday April 23 2015, @01:48PM
You kid, but "paranoid luddite" really seems to be the best, safest approach to new technologies in this era.
(Score: 1) by Ox0000 on Thursday April 23 2015, @03:32PM
Dear healthcare consumer,
We have noticed that your 'quotidian' amount of steps is less than we'd like. We _care_ about you and would suggest you take steps (ahum) to rectify this. To give you some more incentive, you will no longer be covered for any type of healthcare unless you rectify this situation.
Your friend,
Secundera Pink Octagon
"Safety in Numbers, Because we care" (about our bottom line, not you)
It's not because you're paranoid that they're not out to get you! I think we've seen cases enough where a certain level of scepticism is warranted because these things *will* be used *against* you. We know this because we've seen this happen so many times already!
Example: I think it's Progressive that offers you a discount if you let them track everything and anything about your driving habits by 'incorporating a driving experience monitor' (i.e. GPS with accelerometer). In reality, you are being penalized and hit with higher premiums if you *don't* (let them) install that stuff.
Technology is supposed to work /for/ you, not against you. (you being a person, corporations are not people)
(Score: 2, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Thursday April 23 2015, @02:54PM
My password is encoded in my semen. If you want access to my account you can suck my dick.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by TK on Thursday April 23 2015, @04:58PM
You know how when you buy a car with a fancy navigation system you run the risk of it being obsolete in two years. Am I going to have to have invasive surgery to remove my passcode manually, or will Hermes famous Jerk Prunes/Caribbean Drano work?
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday April 24 2015, @08:54PM
Swallow Your Password
No.
Does anyone else find headlines that tell you to do something just a bit condescending?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk