That's a good question.
At another point in the conference call, when asked if the pattern recognition v. minutiae argument had been made to Compaq, etc., Fowler indicated, no. It seems from that that Compaq and IDX never were in serious talks, or talks at all.
I think that Identicator's minutiae-based device is the low-priced commodity in the market, and that Compaq's interest at this point is getting out a sub-$100 device to introduce to the public.
Beyond that, though, I think Fowler is right to say that the Identicator device is a product that will not survive integration into the Internet. It is not encrypted, for one thing, and it resides on the user's hard drive -- perhaps the least protected area of a network -- for another. Finally, it uses a relatively breakable code that is ultimately compatible with law enforcement uses. Not exactly privacy-friendly. Some of the same reasoning would apply to the Mastercard/Identicator alliance. Right now, those smart cards are not hooked up to anything but a POS verifier. For that, you don't need a sophisticated approach. When smart cards are put into desktop readers for e-commerce, though, much more will be required. |
