Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

One of the other attractions of biometric checkout systems is the ability to link authentication with a wide range of payment options, including several that offer much lower transaction fees than MasterCard, Visa and AmericanExpress.

Relatively high bank card fees are angering many retailers, prompting a significant protest demonstration at this month’s National Retail Federation tradeshow in New York. To the extent that biometric authentication could be a tool to loosen the reliance that retailers have on those higher-priced cards, it’s of keen interest to retail executives.

Pay By Touch, for example, is pushing its eCheck program, in which consumer funds are debited directly from checking accounts, as with a debit card, except that a finger scan replaces the debit card’s traditional PIN or—more rarely—required signature.

When a consumer enrolls in a biometric authentication program, he or she is presented with a list of payment choices. Given that consumers will often select the first option, Riordan suggested that retailers make it a payment method with lower cost to the retailer, such as eCheck. That would also generate revenue for Pay By Touch at the expense of the major credit card companies.

With such financial incentives, retailers very much want these systems to work. But getting widespread consumer support is not going to be easy, given perceptions about security and privacy. And privacy activists like Albrecht want to do what they can to make that hurdle even higher.

“Fingerprint systems serve as a de facto loyalty card. The same Pay By Touch system that sends your ID data to the retailer to process your transaction sends your personal information to the marketers, too,” Albrecht said.

“This issue is particularly vexing to me, given that I’ve spent the last six years trying to remind people that they should make their purchases anonymously if they don’t want to reveal intimate details about their lives to marketers and the government. There is nothing more perversely opposed to that ideal than paying with a fingerprint, the very embodiment of personal identity in most people’s minds.”

Those who watch the retail security industry for a living have little trouble understanding the consumer resistance, although most agree that biometrics will likely win over consumers with time.

Mark Rasch, a former federal white-collar crime prosecutor, responded sarcastically to reports of consumers hesitant to use biometrics at their supermarket.