Slate: How Mundane Grocery Store Runs Turned Into an Opportunity for … Your Handprint to Get Hacked?

“Privacy policies are presented as something useful for individuals,” said Calli Schroeder, senior counsel and global privacy counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy and civil rights research institution. “Even pretty well-written ones are not … really there to help the individual. They’re there to cover the company’s back.” 

Passwords can be changed in the event of a hack; palms cannot. Naturally, Amazon’s terms of use do not identify available recourse or compensation if one’s handprint were to be stolen. There is no legal precedent on a comparable scale, and affected consumers would likely be facing lengthy, expensive battles to seek justice. 

… “Pushing for a federal law on biometrics is a completely reasonable ask … as is forcing companies to be much more transparent,” Schroeder said. “It would be much easier to have one global standard instead of having to adjust practices for every jurisdiction.” 

Read more here.