Fingerprint sensor, palm scanner, voice prints replacing passwords

[NEW YORK] They aren't taking any chances at Barclays. Stating an account number and other bona fides isn't enough to get to your money at the British bank's wealth and investment management service. As an additional safeguard, a program analyses customers' voices when they call in, to make sure they match a voice print on file.

At some ATMs in Japan, getting cash isn't simply a matter of entering a bank card and a password. The machine scans the vein pattern in a person's palm before issuing money.

And, since September, people have been using fingerprint sensors on their iPhone 5s to unlock their devices or to shop at the iTunes store.

These are three examples of biometrics systems, which have long been the province of border control, military surveillance and national intelligence. Now these systems are rapidly moving into the consumer mainstream to unlock laptops and smartphones or as a supplement to passwords. But the technology also comes with a hos…