Revolut tests Pay with Smile facial recognition checkout
Revolut is testing a facial recognition payment feature called Pay with Smile, which would allow customers to authorize transactions using their face instead of a card or PIN.
Why this matters: Paying with your face sounds convenient until you think about what you are handing over. A PIN can be changed. Your face cannot. Every time you use a system like this, you are training a biometric database that a company now owns and controls. You did not get to negotiate the terms of that. If Revolut expands this, the real issue is not whether smiling at a terminal works. It is where that facial data goes, how long it is kept, and what happens when the company gets breached or sold.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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