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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: 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)