Have Your Fingerprints Read From 6 Meters Away 122
First time accepted submitter Burdell writes "A new startup has technology to read fingerprints from up to 6 meters away. IDair currently sells to the military, but they are beta testing it with a chain of 24-hour fitness centers that want to restrict sharing of access cards. IDair also wants to sell this to retail stores and credit card companies as a replacement for physical cards. Lee Tien from the EFF notes that the security of such fingerprint databases is a privacy concern."
Since the last time this technology was mentioned more than a year ago, it seems that the claimed range for reading has tripled, and the fingerprint reader business has been spun off from the company at which development started.
It's not as bad as it sounds (Score:5, Informative)
After a little RTFA time, I don't think it's quite like the blurb makes it sound. The system can't scan dozens of people walking down a sidewalk (unlike the facial recognition technology used in most "free" countries today). The user has to actively wave at it to allow it to scan.
One concern the article raised is that it appears the prints are stored on the machine as an image (or perhaps a series of numbers describing the layout) rather than a cryptographically secure hash of the print. So if you steal the system, you get a bunch of free pictures of people's prints...and you probably get all of the prints on the hand, since they would likely scan every digit and compare it to the database. As prints become a more common means of identification, those boxes become as valuable as credit card and SSN databases. Although I'm sure the security of 24-hour Fitness and Target are second to none.
Re:not a good thing (Score:5, Informative)
It doesn't matter what the circumstances are, really. If you take out a huge debt, then default, and then refuse to pay, you are a deadbeat client.
A collections agency deals exclusively with such clients. Some are honest people who have had a serious problem happen, such as a death in the family, a serious illness, or injury. Most of the people I know who work in collections are more than happy to work out an equitable payment plan for such people, if they can prove their condition.
The problem, is that there are also "Dedicated deadbeats" out there. They game the system for all it is worth, rack up debts of unbelievable amounts, then move, change their names, liquidate their on-credit purchases for cash, and settle somewhere else, leaving other people to hold the bag of their shit. These people invent sob stories all the time, hoping to weasle out of their obligations. Dealing with these people makes collections people innately distrustful and cynical.
I actually interned at a collection agency for awhile. I got to see just what percentages of the debtors were real, diehard deadbeats. we are talking people with a paper file that weighs 10 pounds, with 50 aliases.
These people far outnumber the honest debtors. Most honest people will try to bend over backwards to pay a bill before it reaches a collection agency. The people collection agencies deal with are the people that absolutely refuse to pay, despite being notified for months on end, as a usual practice.
Collection agencies are like trash collectors. They are not a glamorous vocation, and like trash collectors, being one puts you at risk. Trash collectors get unregistered medical waste from things like insulin syrenges in the trash that could stick them. They get exposed to all kinds of toxic chemical shit. Bill collectors have to work with people that would rather kill the bill collector than pay the bill.
As much as you seem to hate the bill collectors, they provide a valuable and essential service to modern society. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and often times, the bill collectors are all that stands between a glut of people gaming the system, and ruining it for everyone else.
Do you like running water? Electricity? Those services are not free to provide, and paying the people to provide them is how you get them. Most bills processed at the company I interned at were utility bills. With people wanting free utilities, by getting them in other people's names, under false names, and abusing the system in so many ways i cant even describe them all.
Contrary to what you might believe, a collections agency *CAN* pull your credit history, and see that while you owe a huge ass debt, you also spent 1000$ on a new laptop at newegg. As such, when you give a sob story about being laid off, they arent going to believe you. That 1000$ could have paid your 500$ debt, and left some over. Why didnt you make an effort to pay your debt?
Again, for the people who really *ARE* impoverished, their histories will clearly show that. You would be surprised how a properly informed agency can actually benefit such a debtor.
But of course, you hate collections people, because they make people pay what they legally owe.
but thanks for the derail anyway.
Re:Absolutely not ... (Score:5, Informative)
Take it from someone who has actual experience as a law enforcement officer(me), probable cause must exist to effect a legal arrest. The only side note to that is that "Reasonable, Articulable Suspicion"(RAS, based off of experience and other factors, which one must be able to articulate) must exist to initiate a "Terry Frisk"(Also covered as "Terry Stop"), per Terry v Ohio. In that ruling, there must be RAS that a crime is about to be committed, is being committed, or has just been committed. Even then, an arrest can only be made when probable cause is discovered; RAS only provides an officer the authority to initiate a "detention".
I was trained, as well as thousands of other officers, that illegal arrest(which are those that lack probable cause) can be resisted with any force necessary(i.e. the minimum needed), up to and including deadly force. That means that, if a police officer comes up to me, having committed no crime and no probable cause existing to the contrary, and attempts to place me under arrest(cessation of free movement), I may use force to resist such an arrest. Should the officer give me no other alternative, either by drawing his or her firearm or using an instrument that could cause great bodily harm or death, I have the option of using deadly force(a firearm, a ball bat, my new karate death move, or whatever) to resist the illegal arrest.
A word of caution: You had better know that you are in the right. If you are wrong and there was evidence that provides probable cause for an arrest, you have just committed numerous crimes. That and you will have a large body of law enforcement officers out to "cease your free movement".
Re:not a good thing (Score:2, Informative)
He's being accurate:
Deadbeat
(n)
1. One who does not pay one's debts.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadbeat