Facial recognition: It’s time for action
Biometrics are creeping into everyday life. One of my local gyms this week switched to requiring fingerprints or you were barred from access. Another local gym uses facial recognition for entrance, although you can choose to have a member card instead if you ask for it directly, they don't list it as an option.Thankfully in the EU we have GDPR. It considers biometrics as a similar sensitivity to medical data, so unless you genuinely need it (maybe a hospital) then you can only get it with explicit consent. If consent is not given then that can not bar you from service.So I reported a company to the ICO this week for the introduction of fingerprint scanners and was assured they consider it was a breach and will deal with them. GDPR isn't perfect and I think defaulting to consent is wrong and alternatives must be called out but you can't help people sleeping walking into it, it is very convenient.