As consumer product companies keep promoting fingerprint readers and heart rate sensors to the general public, biometric technologies are being used behind the scenes in many industries, including travel, banking, and security. Beyond just improving health and speeding up mobile device access, businesses are adopting biometrics to boost efficiency, convenience, and security.
For instance, to lessen long lines at customs and check-in and to create a more dependable method of verifying identities, major airlines and airports are introducing fingerprint scanning to replace traditional boarding passes and enhance efficiency at customs. A well-known example is the US-VISIT program, which gathers digital fingerprints and photos from foreign passport holders. Biometrics have been utilized even longer in banking to help people in developing nations access their finances despite language barriers and low literacy levels. Instead of using keypads with numbers and letters, some banks in these countries have adopted fingerprint scanning on ATMs to improve accessibility. This technology, although not new, is now being used in the travel industry to boost security and convenience.
As evidenced by these broad applications, biometrics are primed to become even more consumer-facing with time. As consumers grow more comfortable with biometrics to improve their exercise or sleep routines, industries that plan to make drastic changes to their systems, such as air travel, must start building consumer trust now. In general, consumers are largely aware of the penetrability of these technologies from a security standpoint. Fingerprint scans are relatively easy to fool, as fraudsters have used prosthetic silicone digits and even Play-Dough with imprints of lifted fingerprints to bypass these systems. Also, with highly publicized data breaches making headlines on a seemingly regular basis, consumers may not be willing to give up their fingerprints for submission into a company’s database. The potential result: a major investment by industry, but significant pushback from customers who feel that the new approach is an invasion of privacy.
Businesses will have to earn the trust of the general public in order for biometrics to become ubiquitous. A Boxever survey covering consumer sentiment about the way their personal data is being used in the travel industry uncovered some disturbing trends which suggest that companies have a long way to go to earn consumer trust:
- 62% of travelers don’t want brands tracking their location.
- 50% of travelers don’t want to share their personal information.
The main reason: a lack of value and trust.
Before jumping to implement the latest and greatest biometric technology, brands have to make sure that the customer will be on board. The reality is that today, a major gap exists between companies and consumers around the use of personal data. By using the data they already collect to make everything about value and create better experiences, in time, customers will be more willing to give personal information for the sake of increased convenience or security. Beyond taking measures to make sure that customer data is secure and confidential, brands will earn trust by being transparent with how their customer intelligence data is being used and why it’s being collected. Ultimately, if companies are utilizing information – whether it’s geolocation, fingerprints, or iris patterns – to better the customer experience and enhance security, they will be successful in earning the trust of their customers.