Mastercard wants you to start paying with your face. CNBC reports that Mastercard's new plan would let consumers tie their credit cards to biometric identifiers: "At checkout, users will be able to authenticate their payment by showing their face or the palm of their hand instead of swiping their card."
This is terrible idea. Facial recognition systems are neither particularly useful, nor do do they respect your privacy.
Less objectionable, but still gross, is the idea of effectively turning your body into a credit card. The credit system is already predatory enough, but tying your debt to your body is deeply dehumanizing. Most objectionable is the continued socialization and adoption of facial recognition, a technology that is inherently dangerous to society and useless to the individual, making it the worst idea in the history of consumer technology.
CNBC also reports Mastercard's scheme will somehow allow you to make payments in the metaverse and verify ownership for NFTs—the third and second worst ideas in technology, respectively.
Don't Become a Credit Card
There are two big problems with facial recognition in general. First, there's no good way to communicate intent with it. This is a real problem when using your face to unlock your phone, since simply holding up your phone (or someone else holding up your phone) will unlock it whether you want to or not. It's the same for making purchases. Granted, work has been done to fix this, but there's a world of difference between choosing to enter a PIN or present your fingerprint than looking at a machine just so.
Since my start in 2008, I've covered a wide variety of topics from space missions to fax service reviews. At PCMag, much of my work focused on security and privacy services, as well as a video game or two. I also wrote the occasional security columns, focused on making information security practical for normal people. I helped organize the Ziff Davis Creators Guild union and served as its Unit Chair.
My Areas of Expertise
Technology, security, and privacy
Security and privacy software, including VPNs
Hardware multi-factor authentication keys
Open-source software and hardware
Election security and disinformation
Interpreting infosec research for a wider audience
