Biometric Data

Payment provider Mastercard announced this week that it is developing various technologies that will allow it to identify customers by their strides, heartbeat, and vein patterns.

Social media giant Facebook has reportedly reached a $550 million settlement over a lawsuit that claimed the company illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users via facial recognition technology without their consent.

A recent report alleges that Google targeted homeless people with “darker skin tones” to capture their biometric data to improve the tech giant’s facial unlock system.

A major data breach reportedly found in biometrics security system “BioStar 2,” built by security company Suprema, has now made private data — such as fingerprints and facial recognition scans — public, affecting at least a million people. According to researchers, once biometric data is stolen, it cannot be retrieved, potentially affecting users “for the rest of their lives.”

Facebook could reportedly face billions of dollars in fines over their facial recognition features due to an Illinois law relating to the collection of biometric data.