The Case For Biometrics In LP

The unparalleled authentication enabled by fingerprint biometric technology makes it a natural fit for LP (loss prevention) efforts.

Biometric technology has found a home in the LP community. In this month's Retail Solutions Forum, Chip Mesec, senior product marketing manager at DigitalPersona, Inc., and Retail Systems Research (RSR) managing partners Nikki Baird and Paula Rosenblum weigh in on the power of fingerprint biometric technology as an authentication tool.

What implementation/installation challenges must a retailer consider when contemplating biometric technologies for LP applications?

Mesec: The primary issues that need to be addressed when considering fingerprint biometrics are deployment zones, user registration, and user education.

Baird: Privacy is the biggest concern. There's a certain amount of education needed around the fact that you can't use the scan of a fingerprint for law enforcement purposes because it doesn't hold as many match points as a police fingerprint does – law enforcement requires a nine-point match, and most biometrics systems require five. You have to sell the benefits too – employees don't have to carry cards or worry about forgetting their card or badge. They always have their finger with them, and it's no faster or slower than any other authentication method.

Rosenblum: Secondarily, you want to make sure there's a certain amount of independence between hardware and software. This is a theme that I'm going to mention several times. Expect the hardware to commoditize rapidly. Finally, you have to be able to ‘prove' to the employees (and ultimately courts, if you plan to prosecute for theft) that a five-point match is enough for positive ID. Otherwise, you run some risk of lawsuits.