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: 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.