Hertz has announced that its new app utilizes biometrics to make it easier to pick up your car. This is great news and more companies need to use biometrics to make life easier – just please use the biometric tools available in every smartphone. Use FIDO, or some similar private public key methodology, to confirm the user matches the biometric. Please don’t store it in some huge database where it becomes a honeypot attracting criminals, especially not a government operated database.
CLEAR doesn’t only collect your biometric, it collects EVERYTHING even if you just visit the web site. See for yourself here. This is the part I like least, it strikes me as a ridiculous invasion of my privacy:
“We also may collect personal information typed into forms on clearme.com, whether or not the form is submitted.
In addition, when users visit our website, we collect certain information by automated means, such as cookies and web beacons. The information we collect in this manner includes IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, information on actions taken on our site, and dates and times of website visits. A “cookie” is a text file that websites send to a visitor’s computer or other Internet-connected device to uniquely identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser. A “web beacon”, also known as an Internet tag, pixel tag or clear GIF, links web pages to web servers and their cookies and may be used to transmit information collected through cookies back to a web server. Through these automated collection methods, we obtain “clickstream data, which is a log of content on which a visitor clicks while browsing a website. As the visitor clicks through the website, a record of the action may be collected and stored. Clickstream data also can tell us the type of computer and browsing software a visitor uses, the address of the website from which the visitor linked to our site, and the pages she visits on our site.”
So back to Hertz and its announcement that it is using CLEAR to recognize you so you can drive away with a car:
“Hertz has released a refurbished mobile app designed to streamline the car rental process and make it easier for customers to get on the road. The app will allow users to log in using fingerprint or facial recognition, at which point they can use the app to make reservations, manage their accounts, and access services like roadside assistance.
“When redesigning the Hertz app, we listened to customers and what they wanted most,” said Hertz Senior VP Jayesh Patel. “Our customers told us they wanted faster reservations, better visibility to their loyalty program rewards and easy access to their rental history and receipts. The updated Hertz app offers those solutions and many more.”
The the new app arrives shortly after the launch of the Hertz Fast Lane program, which was a joint initiative with CLEAR. Fast Lane links a CLEAR account with a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards account and allows members to use their registered biometrics to confirm a rental reservation.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group