From this months consumer reports:
PRIVACY WATCH
Your fingerprint, please
Mike A. Fritz, a reader from Woodinville, Wash., wanted to cash a check written to him for the camping trailer he had just sold. But the bank wanted his fingerprint and wouldn't cash the check without it.
"We can understand the bank wanting to verify that the funds were in the account, that the signature was authentic . . . and wanting to
see a picture identification," Fritz and his wife, Vivien, wrote. "But requiring anything beyond that is insulting to decent people."
Banks in all 50 states--it's unclear how many--now demand fingerprints of people who don't have an account there but want to cash a check. Using an inkless pad, you place your fingerprint next to your
signature on a check. If fraud is later suspected, the check is turned over to the police, who try to match the print with those they have on file. The American Bankers Association and law-enforcement groups
hail the measure as a crime deterrent.
But consumer advocates say it marginalizes people without bank accounts. If they don't want to be fingerprinted, they must use a check-casher, which charges a percentage of the check. Privacy
advocates fear the creation of a "Big Brother-like"database (the prints aren't now stored in databases).
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