This is surreal: 

Imagine you’ve gone through a multiple week process to purchase an automobile. 

You know the drill. Research every feature, pick your color, then, it’s negotiations for purchase price and for trade-in. Everything is done and agreed upon, and excited, you are ready to hand over the check and collect your new car.

But wait!

You are handed a slip of paper and told to mark your right thumbprint in a box. The paper says clearly that it’s a request, for your protection, and to prevent your identity theft. 

When you politely decline, the dealership refuses to sell you the car. 

This is precisely what happened to me today when I tried to purchase a new X3 at the South Bay BMW dealer in Torrance, California. 

Go check out the rest of the story, it’s an interesting read.  Especially considering recent reports that Chase Bank is now refusing to cash checks without a thumbprint, this is becoming a serious privacy issue. 

South Bay’s claim is that, even though the customer was willing to pay in cash, that that biometric data was necessary to prevent fraud.  Either I still have an abundance of post-surgical meds coursing through my veins, or I am not nearly as smart as I fancy myself.  In either case, I am begging somebody to explain to me exactly what kind of fraud this prevents and how it does so? 

Personally, I have no intention of submitting biometric data to anyone who does not possess a court order to collect it.  Not only is this a gross violation of consumer rights (unwritten, to be sure) but it clearly creates a superfluous security nightmare given the apparent inability for organizations ranging from hospitals to private companies to the US freakin’ government to protect the privacy of their own databases.  Hell, if the VA can’t keep it together, my faith in South Bay BMW to protect my privacy rates somewhere around my belief in unicorns.