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Fingerprints may replace e-tickets
Posted by: Sean O'Neill, Wednesday, Sep 5, 2007, 12:55 PM
fingerprint.jpg
Air France has announced that it will start an experiment with "biometric boarding cards" this winter on its Paris-Amsterdam route. Passengers who volunteer will load a digital image of their index print onto an electronic chip card. They'll then be able to use the card to go through fast-track lanes at airport check-ins. An electronic gate will allow a passenger to walk through if it detects a match between the scan of a fingerprint in a computer database and the one on the card.

If the tests with about 1,000 passengers are successful, the high-tech cards will be offered to nearly 15 percent of Air France customers. [via Agence France-Presse]

Photo by Fazen. Find her portfolio on Flickr.

Reader Comments

...and another smidgen of privacy goes down the drain.

Posted By Linda R. Moore on September 6, 2007, 11:07 PM

Scary...

Posted By Johanna I. on September 10, 2007, 1:31 PM

Its especially unsettling to have your biometric data sitting on some server. If that server were ever compromised, an unscrupulous person would now have an electronic copy of your fingerprint. Which is obviously not something that can be changed! I think it is wholly unnecessary to have a fingerprint be my boarding pass. Yes, it is convenient, but I think the risks outweigh the convenience.

Posted By Rich on September 10, 2007, 2:23 PM

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