Today I was making some payments in one of the shops for purchasing some fruits. I was using my mobile phone to make the payment and that's when I was wondering if it would be even great to scan my fingerprint on a device to authorize the payment. It is a cool system to have but then I started thinking about the pros and cons of having that system. When I thought thoroughly, I understood that there were more cons instead of pros in having that system.
Manipulating the payment
With the help of some dirty tools available today, it is easy for someone to get fingerprints and use them for payments. This is the most dangerous thing. In the case of card payments or another mode of payment, we can at least change the password or PIN but in the case of biometrics, the details a human being holds are permanent and if it is stolen we cannot change it by any means. We can probably use biometrics as an additional option or second factor for authentication, we cannot keep it as the only option.
Data protection laws
When someone is storing biometric information, there are laws like GDPR and other laws across the world that determine how the user data should be used. Some challenges can be both regulatory as well as legal that can prevent us from using the biometric information we want. In this case, we might as well have a problem storing the biometric information because GDPR wants the data removed when the organization is no longer in the contract.
Practical human adoption
Even if we want the payment system to be authorized with biometrics, maybe it can be an additional option provided but it cannot be a good idea to have just biometrics alone. Human adoption can be another problem because humans fear regulation and legal issues and they don't want to use this. Some enthusiastic people who welcome new changes might be interested in using such features. Today we have biometrics in our banking applications along with a PIN facility as a 2-factor authentication. The same can be made an application. But on a wider range, people won't agree to this and they may not use this feature even if it is made available.
Security issues
More than regulatory issues, security issues are also very tough to handle. This is one of the biggest problems when it comes to biometrics. If the server gets compromized and the biometric data gets leaked out, it is hard to use that as the authentication because in passwords, we can give a facility to change the passwords but with biometrics, if it is once leaked, it is leaked and it cannot be reversed. That's why we should have this only as an optional feature and not the main feature.
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Balancing convenience with security should always be a top priority, this cannot be overemphasized.
I strongly believe that each method has its advantages and disadvantages. There is no such thing as a completely secure system and anyone claiming otherwise would be like Apple logo! Do not doubt! The challenge facing us today is greater when governments are also involved in these cases. Let me give you an example: you have imported payment devices from China and they are defective and allow theft. I have seen such systems. I have seen payment devices imported from China that enabled theft after swiping the customer's card and lost money from this process. Challenges in having a secure payment system is really a big challenge.👍