Consumers Resist Retail BioMetrics

I saw this article in eWeek and it is pretty standard stuff about retail using biometrics (fingerprints) to help the check out process at Piggly Wiggly grocery stores go faster. What I found most amusing was the response by the bible thumping folks to this process

(Assistant director of information systems at Piggly Wiggly Rachel) Bolt said she didn't appreciate how emotionally intense some of the opposition was until she visited a store and saw a 70-year-old woman literally throw a Bible at an employee trying to enroll people in the program.

"She told him that God was going to rain hellfire on him and that he was promoting the devil's work," Bolt said, adding that she took that to mean the customer was not interested in enrolling....

The 70-year-old customer was reacting to the concern of some in the religious community that RFID (radio-frequency identification) and biometric programs are similar to a Bible story known as "the mark of the beast." The story from Revelation speaks of limits to sales or purchases "save
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Although I am not a fan of my super market finger printing me as a way to validate my credit card, I don't think this is the work of the devil, or as Dana Carvey's Church Lady used to say on SNL, "SATAN?"