Reader Michael writes in to let us know that the creepy biometric payment company that was operating in supermarkets such as Jewel-Osco has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

From their website:

Solidus Networks, Inc., dba Pay By Touch, regretfully announced today that it will no longer process biometric transactions on behalf of its merchant customers and consumer membership base, as of 11:59:59PM March 19, 2008.

On December 14, 2007, Solidus Networks filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. As part of the company’s restructuring, it was determined that the enterprise could no longer support the biometric authentication and payment system as it currently exists, based on lack of funding and current market conditions.

Reader Michael says:

I don’t know if it’s because of lack of demand, or they finally realized that collecting biometric data on customers for the simple purpose of paying for groceries was just plain evil. In any case, it’s gone now, and I can attest that the Pay-By-Touch readers at both of my local Jewel/Osco’s are now covered up with paper and hand-written notes stating basically what the article above states.

Good riddance to them, I say!

Michael

Yeah, it was a little too Gattaca for me. It seems like others felt the same way.

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