‘Pay with smile’ facial recognition store checkout system piloted by Revolut
Revolut is piloting a facial recognition checkout system that lets shoppers pay in stores by smiling at a camera rather than using a card or phone. The system links a person's face to their payment credentials at the point of sale.
Why this matters: Your face is not a password you can change. Once it is in a payment system, it is there permanently. Revolut is a fintech company, not a government, but the implications are the same: your biometric data gets tied to every transaction you make. That is a detailed record of where you shop, when, and how often. The 'convenience' framing is doing a lot of work here. The real issue is what happens to that data, who can access it, and what you lose if the system is breached or sold.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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