Abstract
The South African government has called on MasterCard credit payments systems to help it distribute welfare benefits to millions of people through biometric debit cards. Biometric authentication refers to technologies that measure and analyze human characteristics for authentication purposes. This process is underpinning biometric citizen ID, one of the most rapidly expanding fields in which the application of biometrics. This technology is being applied to innovative financial instruments, such as that developed by MasterCard for the South African market. MasterCard’s new biometric smart card makes the international as financial institutions integrate the worlds 2.5 billion unbanked into global financial networks. The body is becoming the site of authentication to access money and to credit.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Making Things International |
| Subtitle of host publication | Circuits and Motion |
| Editors | Mark B. Salter |
| Place of Publication | Minneapolis |
| Publisher | University of Minnesota Press |
| Pages | 311-327 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Volume | 1 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-0-8166-9625-3, 978-0-8166-9626-0 |
| Publication status | Published - May 2015 |