Is it just me, or does it seem that every time they come up with a new way to make our lives easier, we become more and more vulnerable to the will of those wishing to do us harm?
I’m serious.
Not to sound like a crotchety old Luddite, but when it comes to technology, some things just don’t make sense…
Take, for instance, Apple’s Touch ID application that was announced this year, which allows you to scan your fingerprint to unlock your phone.
Think about that for a moment.
When it comes to personal identification, there’s nothing more personal than your fingerprint. Your fingerprint is more exclusive than your Social Security number and your birth certificate.
As well, you can always cancel a credit card or get a new Social Security card. You cannot, however, be issued a new fingerprint. It’s unchangeable. It cannot be altered, and it cannot be hijacked…
Unless, of course, you digitize that fingerprint and send it out over the Internet.
How much is your fingerprint worth?
Imagine for a moment that you use Touch ID or something similar to unlock your phone. You then use the same system to get access to your bank account or approve a credit card purchase online.
Where does that digital copy of your fingerprint go?
Well, everything is backed up somewhere. And on some nameless server in some random location, there your fingerprint would sit, vulnerable to anyone savvy enough to hack into those servers.
If such a thing were to happen, it’s unlikely you would be contacted by the company housing those servers or law enforcement… at least, not until you fingerprint was on the hard drive of a basement-dwelling Russian hacker selling credit card numbers and identities to the highest bidder.
So the question is, how much do you think your fingerprint is worth?
Better yet, how much do you think your fingerprint is worth to an individual who also has access to your bank account, your credit cards, and even your health records?
I don’t know about you, but the idea of a tech-savvy criminal or even a dishonorable government employee having access to my fingerprint scares the hell out of me.
So no, I can’t imagine I’d ever voluntarily send a digital version of my fingerprint over the Internet.
That being said, the Touch ID was actually rated as one of the biggest tech breakthroughs of 2013. But breakthroughs, in my opinion, aren’t always positive.
Mustard gas was a breakthrough in chemistry in the late 1800s, but I doubt the folks in Ethiopia were particularly excited about mustard gas after fascist Italian troops used the stuff during the 1935 invasion of Ethiopia during the second Italy-Abyssinian war.
Of course, there is a difference between mustard gas and Touch ID. One was used as a brutal weapon during battle, while the other is used to make it easier for you to access your smartphone applications.
An Expedited Evolution
Despite my very rational and justified fear of handing over my fingerprint to criminal hackers, I’m not anti-tech.
Truth is it is modern technology that has allowed me to live a very comfortable life, and even make a lot of money.
God knows it’s a hell of a lot easier to trade stocks online than it used to be when I had to call my broker. That alone has enabled me to trade faster, more effectively and more successfully. And certainly I’ve devoted plenty of space in these pages to sing the praises of electric cars and clean energy technologies, two things I’m very passionate about.
I’ve also spent a lot of time recently talking up the benefits and, of course, profit opportunities in the robotics sector.
I’m not saying the intentions of all robotics companies are always honorable. Certainly the visions of science fiction robot armies and police officers are enough to keep our skepticism alive — especially now that we know all of this stuff is now in testing phases in real life!
However, for the most part, robots are enabling the global community to advance rapidly. Whether it’s through surgical breakthroughs or resource development (the impact robots have had on oil production is overwhelmingly positive), robots are not only facilitating an expedited evolution of sorts, but they’re also leading us to enormous profits…
Take Adept Technology, a robot play my colleague Jason Stutman tipped me off to back in April.
The company, which manufacturers and sells industrial and mobile robots, was going for about $3.00 a share back in April.
About two weeks ago, it hit a record high of $12.50. Check it out:
This, by the way, is just a single robot company that’s crushing it for tech investors.
So if you haven’t already, I strongly recommend adding a few solid robotics stocks to your portfolio.
To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth…
Jeff Siegel
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Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor’s page.
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