With face recognition on the rise and fingerprint readers on our phones, it's no secret that biometrics are quickly becoming the keys to our digi

I Replaced My Fingerprints With Prosthetics to Avoid Surveillance

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2021-06-10 21:00:19

With face recognition on the rise and fingerprint readers on our phones, it's no secret that biometrics are quickly becoming the keys to our digital devices, cars, bank accounts, and so much else.

There are some good reasons for biometric authentication. It's still too easy for hackers to access someone's account by fooling a customer service rep, and many people tend to reuse the same weak passwords for seemingly everything. But biometrics can still be leaked, and unlike the infinitely-changeable PINs and passwords of yore, we're pretty much stuck with them forever.

So in preparation for this brave new world, I decided to replace my fingerprints. And remarkably, it was as easy and painless as applying a Band-Aid.

My substitute prints were provided by Mian Wei, a third-year industrial design student at the Rhode Island School of Design. Using his IDENTITY kit, anyone can cover their real fingerprint with a fake one that's fully-functional, replaceable, and practically impossible to copy.

IDENTITY's packaging is designed to look like something you'd find on a shelf at your local drug store. Each fingerprint-spoofing strip is individually wrapped. Photo: Evan Rodgers/Motherboard