The payments giant announced the launch of its Biometric Checkout Program, which lets customers pay by smiling or waving their hand over a reader. It will first be used at five supermarkets in Brazil as a pilot program.

Why should we care?
Mastercard’s program rests on very shaky foundations: It claims that 74% of consumers have a positive attitude to biometrics, and that 93% of consumers will consider using an emerging payment method in 2022. But these statistics come from research conducted by Idemia, a provider of identity technologies, which clearly has a stake in overstating public appetite for biometrics. (Idemia also doesn’t explain the methodology informing its research report.) A slew of biometric-related payment SNAFUs litter the past few years of fintech news, which should trouble the assumption that most people endorse biometrics: from Worldcoin, the disgraced face-scanning crypto project, to India’s Aadhaar welfare system, which rides on shoddy fingerprint- and iris-dependent infrastructure and often locks people out of much-needed government assistance—sometimes with lethal results. “This partnership with Mastercard is a welcome step forward for us and will enable our technology to be used by more merchants and consumers, making shopping easier and bringing the joy of a smile to payments," said Eládio Isoppo, CEO of Payface, one of the Biometric Checkout Program’s partners. But are consumers really smiling, and do credit cards really need to know what you look like to work? It seems Mastercard may have the last laugh (or grin); it claims it will collect biometric data responsibly, letting “consumers have the right to control how their personal data is shared and benefit from its use.” Rhetoric and practice are two different things, though, and customers might unknowingly relinquish their rights to data the same way we agree to the terms and conditions of software without actually reading the legalese. Mastercard’s program claims convenience and innovation, but it seems like another biometric initiative destined to cause a PR dumpster fire.