The Pokémon Company is turning to facial recognition scans to help combat scalpers
The Pokémon Company is implementing facial recognition scanning as a measure to address scalping, likely at events or purchase points where high-demand products are sold. The move signals a willingness to deploy biometric identification to enforce purchasing limits.
Why this matters: Stopping scalpers is a real and frustrating problem. But the solution here is collecting biometric data from ordinary fans just trying to buy a card pack or a game. That is a significant trade-off. Facial recognition is not like showing an ID — it creates a record of your face tied to a transaction, held by a company, with no obvious limit on how long it stays or what else it could be used for. The scalping problem is minor. The data collection is not.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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