Thumbs Down on Fingerprints

We’re losing inalienable rights faster than you can say “privacy”--and aside from some wimpy protests, we feel alone in our rage. So indulge us here. Today’s flap is about fingerprints, and Wells Fargo’s attempt to cadge ours when we innocently went to cash a check the other day.

Here’s the deal: If a friend owes you money and gives you a check drawn on a Wells Fargo account, you must give the bank your paw print before it will give you your money. We protest! Why do they need our fingerprint? How will they store it? Will they sell it, as firms have been known to sell other personal information? Will sinister types want to copy our prints, and use them fraudulently for their own nefarious purposes? Are we paranoid here?

Bob Loew, vice president of Identicator, which makes the fingerprint devices for banks, says we are. “Those prints are no use to anyone except the bank and law enforcement,” he says. “If you are an honest person trying to cash a check and you have no account at the bank, then your print will be required before the check is cashed. But it will not be stored or used by anyone for any other purpose.”

We hope so.