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> unless I'm also signing that they can use it for other stuff. I find your trust in the strength of a terms of service agreement baffling. If they get a cour

> unless I'm also signing that they can use it for other stuff. I find your trust in the strength of a terms of service agreement baffling. If they get a court order it doesn't matter what you allowed them to do with it. And even without a court order, if they used your fingerprint in ways you didn't allow, how would you know? They wouldn't be the first company to break the law when they think they can get away with it. Even if you trust them, what about when they go bankrupt, or acquired by a chain gym, and all their assets (fingerprints included) suddenly belong to less-scrupulous people.

version_five 5y ago
The biggest reason I don't care is that I doubt they are asking for or recording something from which they can reconstruct my fingerprint. They are reading it into a proprietary scanner run by a local gym (this is an assumption, but I'll bet its true). The scanner has some proprietary code that checks if my fingerprint matches the next time. It can't export a fingerprint file, it cant share it with anyone. If I'm wrong, and they are actually scanning some portable fingerprint image that is readily used either to provide and example for comparison to others, or so generate a fingerprint, then your comment applies. But my guess is it's just a local gym with a scanner and a database that exists in the proprietary scanner software. I'd be much more concerned about giving my fingerprint to apple or lenovo or whatever device provider. Incidentally, I could be entirely wrong. For example, if there is some Fingerprint-as-a-service company the gym uses that lets you create a portable ID based on your fingerprint, I would refuse.
- ramblenode 5y ago
  I find it helpful to assume an adversarial worldview to any service that collects or handles data. You've mentioned some reasonable assumptions about how this system might work. But it's ultimately trust in a black box and a manufacturer with whom you have no personal or business relationship. You have no way of knowing if, at any time, your assumptions are still correct, or if one day in the future what's inside the box gets changed out. What incentives would it take for that to happen? To my imagination, not much. E.g. the manufacturer thinks it can start a side business collecting and selling your full prints. There is certainly a market for them, so why not collect them? Maybe law enforcement sees these devices proliferating and convinces lawmakers to require that the prints be stored to support local investigations. Who would be against catching predators at your gym? Meanwhile the gym doesn't care because this isn't it's problem---and it gets a discount. Things can change fast. If it seems possible, someone is probably thinking about how to do it.

version_five 5y ago

The biggest reason I don't care is that I doubt they are asking for or recording something from which they can reconstruct my fingerprint. They are reading it into a proprietary scanner run by a local gym (this is an assumption, but I'll bet its true). The scanner has some proprietary code that checks if my fingerprint matches the next time. It can't export a fingerprint file, it cant share it with anyone. If I'm wrong, and they are actually scanning some portable fingerprint image that is readily used either to provide and example for comparison to others, or so generate a fingerprint, then your comment applies. But my guess is it's just a local gym with a scanner and a database that exists in the proprietary scanner software. I'd be much more concerned about giving my fingerprint to apple or lenovo or whatever device provider. Incidentally, I could be entirely wrong. For example, if there is some Fingerprint-as-a-service company the gym uses that lets you create a portable ID based on your fingerprint, I would refuse.

ramblenode 5y ago
I find it helpful to assume an adversarial worldview to any service that collects or handles data. You've mentioned some reasonable assumptions about how this system might work. But it's ultimately trust in a black box and a manufacturer with whom you have no personal or business relationship. You have no way of knowing if, at any time, your assumptions are still correct, or if one day in the future what's inside the box gets changed out. What incentives would it take for that to happen? To my imagination, not much. E.g. the manufacturer thinks it can start a side business collecting and selling your full prints. There is certainly a market for them, so why not collect them? Maybe law enforcement sees these devices proliferating and convinces lawmakers to require that the prints be stored to support local investigations. Who would be against catching predators at your gym? Meanwhile the gym doesn't care because this isn't it's problem---and it gets a discount. Things can change fast. If it seems possible, someone is probably thinking about how to do it.