Credit card companies head in the opposite direction with regards to identity?
An article in the Register discusses the introduction of disposable “credit cards” in Ireland.
Rather than having a regular credit card linked to your name, you buy one of the cards which comes pre-loaded with a specified amount of money. When the credit runs out, simply get a new card.
Those who fear identity theft are able to limit their risk with these cards, which can be used anywhere that a regular card can be used, including online. The cards also provide greater privacy to those using them, as their spending patterns can only be assessed for the lifetime of a single card.
These cards, and similar schemes, will provide far greater protection from the financial risk of identity theft than creating the broken once, broken everywhere, broken forever solution provided by biometric identity schemes.
May 22nd, 2006 at 16:37
An interesting concept which avoids certain fears that pre-paid credit cards, whereby the individual ‘loads’ the card with their own money before use, have been considered by some to be a security risk making way for easy money laundering.
Although these disposable credit cards seem like a wonderful invention, there are bound to be a variety of questions that will need answering such as: What is the procedure if the card is lost or stolen? Are the cards accepted as widely as conventional cards? Is there an age limit for buying them?