What is the price of paying with your palm?

Biometric data is being collected to make life more convenient, but the consequences of a data breach are frightening.

- Irene Tham

Scan your face to unlock your phone or clear immigration checks. Scan your finger to unlock the door. Now, palm reading is also coming to the fore as tech firms get creative with using biometrics.

At Alchemist cafe at 71 Robinson Road, a select group of Visa employees have been swiping their hands for several weeks now to pay for coffee, under a trial with Chinese tech giant Tencent to test its Palm Scan Payments system in Singapore.

Plans are afoot to expand the trial to other DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and UOB Visa card holders in Singapore, Tencent's first international stop outside China after having outfitted Beijing's airport express train service and more than 1,500 7-Eleven convenience stores in Guangdong province with its palm-reading technology.

Imagine the convenience of leaving home with just you. No cards. No phones, which often run out of juice.

The argument for increasing use of people's biometric data in everyday scenarios - in shops, at entertainment venues and on public transport - is convenience and security. However, it is one thing for governments to collect your face, finger and gait data for security, and another when firms with commercial interests get in the game.

What happens if your biometric data is stolen, or falls into the wrong hands? What is the price of paying with your palm?

WHAT DATA IS HARVESTED?

Let's unpack the technology to better understand what could be at stake.

On Nov 6, when The Straits Times visited the Tencent and Visa booths at the Singapore Fintech Festival, the companies demonstrated that a one-time enrolment to capture one's palm data is required.

This is done in a few seconds using Tencent's payment reader, which sports two cameras (one for reading the lines on the palm and another for detecting the veins under the skin).