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As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, “Biometric data needed for Banking in Thailand?” Seriously?

Okay. Where did I first come upon this? Well a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Banks agree to comply with Bank of Thailand security measures by June. Quoting directly: "State-owned and Commercial Banks have agreed to comply with the Bank of Thailand's new cyber security measures by the June deadline." Quoting further: "Mr Payong said banks already collected customers' biometric data allowing for facial scans for money transfers and adjustments of credit transfer limits on mobile banking apps." Then they go into further detail about the biometrics that may be associated with it.

This is kind of Orwellian stuff I have to say. Really, why do you need this? I mean I kind of get maybe fingerprints in the case of like major transactions occurring digitally because you want to ensure that the person involved in that transaction did indeed consent to it. I do get why some digital security measures are going to be needed but this weird push, this like Orwellian push toward biometric data associated with it; I even get it in an Immigration context especially related to foreign nationals of foreign countries. Look you want to know who is coming into your country, I totally get it. I really, really do. But whatever happened to banking privacy honestly? Has it all been thrown out? And I am tired of hearing, "know your customer", "know your customer, know your customer" and they constantly throw out some one off situation where some guy who was a money launderer got away with something because they didn't use enough security. You know what collective punishment is? It was used by people like the Soviets and the Nazis. When you collectively punish everyone because there are some bad actors out there, it's not a good plan, it's not a good idea and it harkens back to places you don't want to go and you don't want to live. And I am not just picking on Thailand here. It seems like this is a global phenomenon. You are seeing this popping up, I mean China with its social credit system and all of that stuff. They are on a whole other level but with regard to this, this is one of those where ‘can we all just take a breath and maybe have a chat about whether or not this is the best idea?’ If you read the article you will see it's not across the board right now, but I don't see any limit to this. Once they start doing biometrics, it's going to get to the point where it's done for everything and honestly, do we really all want our livelihoods and every transaction tracked and traced forever? Why and to what end?  And again, I am getting real tired of the law enforcement argument "well there's criminals out there!" Well there are always criminals and there's going to be criminals that will figure out how to deal with this too and by the way, you have got to start asking yourself in the era when you are seeing all these Bank collapses and everything, who should have their biometrics taken? The customers? The people running the darn place. That said, I am just hoping people maybe take a step back from this and take a breath rather than just implementing this thing and just rolling forward.