The arrival of biometric payment terminals in New Zealand has reignited debate over privacy, identity and whether optional conveniences are changing how people prove who they are.
Eftpos NZ has launched terminals built on Verifone’s Victa platform that can handle payments, age verification and digital identity confirmation without a card or phone by using biometrics, such as their face or palm. Eftpos NZ says the service will be available “for those who choose it”.
Supporters point to fewer cards, fewer passwords and faster transactions. But critics question if technologies introduced separately could eventually form a broader identity ecosystem.
Biometrics are already used in passports, airport eGates, banking and identity verification. Air New Zealand has trialled facial recognition boarding, supermarkets have tested facial recognition, and the technology is now entering payments.
China has also used facial recognition payments for years, while companies in several other countries have trialled systems allowing customers to pay using their face or palm.
Meanwhile, Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster is preparing a Biometrics Processing Privacy Code after around 250 submissions raised concerns about how such data should be collected, stored and used.
During Foodstuffs North Island’s 2024 facial recognition trial, Webster warned that New Zealanders “deserve to shop for their milk and bread without having their faces scanned unless it’s really justified”.
The rollout also touches on the wider digital identity debate. Asked by RCR’s Tane Webster about digital ID concerns, ACT leader David Seymour said: “It’s something that [former UK prime minister] Keir Starmer wanted to do and he’s gone. It was never really an issue in New Zealand. I’m not interested in a digital ID”.
New Zealand has no single national digital identity system, but related frameworks and technologies are being developed, including the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework.
Read more at RNZ and ODT and RNZ on Facebook. Watch David Seymour on Digital I.D and RCR’s webinar: NZ’s New Biometric Privacy Code – Digital Surveillance & The Race Against Friday’s Deadline, and The Fourth Estate with Maree Buscke: Universal Age Verification is Digital ID or access our full coverage of Digital ID and CBDC topics.
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