The march toward a cashless society has now moved from the
theoretical to the phase of widespread adoption. This is primarily due
to developments in the tech sector that now enable the easy use of
biometric recognition systems, as well as the increasing acceptance from
a public who is becoming familiar with
turning themselves into a password for their personal devices.
Behind the scenes, governments and corporations have been building the political and economic enticements via the
Better Than Cash Alliance
to ensure that the world eventually gets “de-cashed.” We’re now
witnessing the full roll-out of an architecture that has been in
development for many years.
China’s
high-tech KFC
recently made headlines when it began testing facial recognition
payments in its KPRO store. Cashless agenda denialists, however, could
readily point to China’s authoritarian government to ease any fears
about an impending technocratic takeover occurring in the (supposedly)
more democratic West.
Well, today’s cashless agenda news does come from the West, and it’s a world’s first. As reported by
The Telegraph, London’s Costcutter supermarket has announced that its shoppers can now pay by finger vein scan.
It works by using infrared to scan people’s finger veins and
then links this unique biometric map to their bank cards. Customers’
bank details are then stored with payment provider Worldpay, in the same
way you can store your card details when shopping online. Shoppers can
then turn up to the supermarket with nothing on them but their own hands
and use it to make payments in just three seconds.
Nice and convenient, of course.
Longtime readers of
Activist Post might remember an article by
Brandon Turbeville written in 2011
warning that this was being tested as a future payment system.
Remarking at the time about how smartphone payments would eventually
seem outdated, he explained:
Taking the cashless control grid one step further, an article published on August 8, 2011 in Technology Review, entitled “Beyond Cell Phone Wallets, Biometrics Promise Truly Wallet-Free Future,”
explains that major corporations are not even waiting for the “digital
wallet” to catch on. They are actually moving forward with a system that
will allow for an individual to swipe their palm, not their phone, in
front of a digital recognition device in order to gain access to various
buildings, pay for merchandise, or otherwise identify oneself.
[…]
Indeed, this new type of technology, even this specific product, is already being introduced all over the United States.
For instance, New York University’s Langone Medical Center has
already implemented the vein scanners in some of its medical facilities.
Manufactured by Fujitsu, the scanners are being placed in the hospital under the guise of greater convenience
(the marketing gift that keeps on giving) and faster access to medical
records. Health histories, insurance forms, and other documents are all
handled electronically and at a much faster pace with the help of the
new vein scanners.
[…]
Schools, too, have begun to implement the Fujitsu systems. For instance, the Pinellas County School District in Florida recently announced that it was introducing the system in order “to identify students and thereby reduce waste and the threat of impersonation.”
With the new scanners, the students are able to have their meals
deducted from their account, upon scanning their palms, as they march
single file in the feeding lines during lunch time. Of course, this type
of technology is not new to Pinellas County. The students have been finger scanning in order to gain access to their lunch for years.
Naturally, these days not everyone is worried only about the
intrusive nature of turning one’s body into a password to be mined by
algorithms for corporations and governments, but just as legitimately
about having their financial data hacked.
No worries, says the developer of the newest form of vein scanning,
Sthaler. Although company director, Simon Binns, manages to sound creepy
and objectifying even while trying to reassure the vein-scanning
public:
This is the safest form of biometrics. There are no known incidences where this security has been breached.
“When you put your finger in the scanner it checks you are alive, it
checks for a pulse, it checks for haemoglobin. ‘Your vein pattern is
secure because it is kept on a database in an encrypted form, as binary
numbers. No card details are stored with the retailer or ourselves, it
is held with Worldpay, in the same way it is when you buy online.”
System developers are projecting that adoption of the technology will
be rapid, with perhaps thousands of stores, nightclubs and membership
services getting on board in the near future. The question is: Will it
be optional? And if so, for how long?
As Brandon Turbeville concluded more than 6 years ago:
It should be noted that almost every element of any
control grid begins by being optional when it is first introduced to the
target population. But, as more and more individuals acquiesce to the
system, the more inconvenient and, subsequently, the harder it will
become for the rest of us to opt out. Eventually, the ability to opt out
will be removed altogether. Activist Post
