My Fingerprints. Public Or Private?

It used to be, not so long ago - that getting fingerprinted was the thing that happened before they took you off to jail. As both a staunch privacy advocate, and someone who's lifelong goal was to not have to spend a night in jail, getting fingerprinted was pretty much off-limits for me.

Today - I'm shockingly, deliriously, boundlessly happy to have my prints taken, stored, and used.

What the heck happened? And how did it happen so quickly?

Well,  as it turns out - my password mental database simply crossed the line from complex to overwhelming.

My 'password' is now a series of passwords, all variations,  versions, mixes, evolutions, changes - and there are many of them. Too many to remember.  And growing every day.  On top of that,  my use of Dashlane (thank you David Pogue) which somewhat helps turns out to be in itself a new complexity. Forget your Dashlane "password" and access to your world slams shut. Bummer, no lunch, or Twitter, or Amazon  - simply put,  your digital life is over.

So, when my iPhone 5s arrived giving me the choice of a numerical password or a biometric one... well,  that was easy. Print me, baby. I'm in!

And, I have to say - remarkably it works. Rock solid, every time. My thumb, or my forefinger, either hand (I've printed them all) and my phone glides open. Will this little-heralded feature be a game changer for Apple ? I can see it happening. With the phone teetering on the edge of being my digital wallet - this nifty biometric device might make my credit card a thing of the past. And the Apple rumor mill is already hard at work, finding little reported Apple patent filings that tie the now public biometric scanner with a Near Field Communication device (NFC) in the iPhone 6 that could be the holy grail of both personalization and electronic wallet communications.

Apple Insider reports that there is an Apple patent that combines "a fingerprint scanner with near-field communication technology, furthering rumors that Apple's next iPhone will integrate a novel form of security in order to set itself apart."  The combination of personal security and the ability to pay with a phone 'swipe' could help make the release of Apple's Passbook last year make a whole lot more sense.

Meanwhile, I'm happily placing my forefinger on my phone a zillion times a day - with only the slightest sense that somewhere, the NSA is gathering my prints for some dark, global, homeland database. That would be a bummer, but meanwhile, I'm sure glad I can get on my phone without having to remember a crazy string of numbers and letters anymore. That was hurting my head.