Paying with your eyes – but at what cost? Experts warn of privacy risks in new biometric tech

SECURITY CONCERNS

But using such convenient tech could come at the cost of security, experts say.

Artificial intelligence and deepfake technology could be used to create fake versions of palms, cybersecurity observers previously told CNA. Liveness detection is one way to detect if identities are spoofed or impersonated.

Mr Mohit Mehrotra, financial services industry leader at Deloitte Southeast Asia, said scam and identity issues will naturally arise when new and exponential tech is implemented.

“But given how our system works together with their files, merchants, consumers, regulatory narrative, data protection acts, our national identity ecosystem – it just puts in place a good foundation for us to progressively tackle issues that come along,” he added.

Such tech should be able to work with other payment systems that are already available, which could lead to a smoother and smarter payment experience in tandem with the right safeguards, said Mr Mohit.

In terms of whether the use of biometric data is a concern, he said this cannot stop the world from progressing and modernising.

“We just need to make sure we strengthen our defences, whether through a regulatory narrative (or) through the use of technology to make it better,” he noted.