The addition of the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone and Android based Phones has really opened up a lot of doors to the world of online shopping security! How do I prove it’s me? Well just scan my fingerprint! Why type my bank password, when I could just scan my fingerprint and access it? Even my old full-time-job who was so paranoid about email leaking trade information (to be fair, they were a leader in their very large and competitive field), that if we needed it on our phone, we had to be approved for a special app, because just linking it to the “mail” app wasn’t secure enough, and THAT app had a fingerprint scanner, which was really handy, because if you navigated away from it, you had to log in again. Every. Time.

Even Apple has reported that the finger has to be alive to be used (so you can’t just cut someone’s finger off to get into their phone, mobsters, so don’t even think about it), despite television shows like Castle writing plots to the contrary.

So for corporate security, the fingerprint scanner is GREAT.

Against a six year old who wants LOTS of Pokemon for Christmas, maybe not as much.

Ashlynd Howell in Arkansas, waited for her mother, Bethany, to fall asleep, and then proceeded to use her fingerprint to order 13 Pokemon gifts for herself for Christmas, costing her mom over $250. Ashlynd’s parents thought their Amazon account had been hacked, but Ashlynd told them proudly she had been “shopping.” At least she admitted it. And she’s six, she clearly doesn’t understand the concept of money quite yet. She probably thought her mom paid for it in fingerprint alone! Although, she did understand the concept of opening Amazon, searching for Pokemon, putting them in the shopping cart, and pressing “Buy” so maybe she’s not as innocent as her age would make her seem.

Amazon only allowed Bethany to return four of the 13 gifts. She also assured her daughter that, because Santa Claus sees all, she wouldn’t be getting all the gifts for Christmas like she had hoped.

Nice Try, Ashlynd. Maybe seven will be a year of wiser choices… or schemes…