How Comfortable are you Giving your Fingerprints to 24 Hour Fitness?

24 Hour Fitness has recently implemented the cardless check-in at the gym I regularly go to; for a month or so you were able to enter the gym by either showing your member card or entering your phone number and scanning your index finger.

Although I had signed up for the cardless check-in (I did not give this any thought when asked if I wanted to sign up) I continued to show my card every time I visited the gym, up until last Monday when the front desk employee told me:

“You need to enter your phone number there, and place your index finger on the scanner”

I wasn’t very happy about it, since I felt that the employee was upset about the fact that I was interrupting his conversation with a fellow 24 Hour employee.

But what happens if you don’t want to give out your fingerprint to 24 Hour Fitness?

The same employee explained:

“Well, then that is really an inconvenience since I have to manually key-in your card; we don’t have the card readers anymore”

Great way to start a workout with the friendly staff at 24 Hour Fitness!

Why is the cardless check-in being implemented?

According to 24 Hour fitness the new system is:

• Very convenient, since now members do not need to show their ID or gym card
• More secure, since you cannot lose your finger!
• Environmentally-friendly.

The 24 Hour Fitness website says that your fingerprints are converted to a series of dots that is used to identify you and that the company will not keep, store or sell your actual fingerprint. According to their website, since your fingerprint is converted to a series of dots, it is impossible for 24 Hour fitness, MorphoTrack (the company supplying the gym with biometric logistics) or anyone else to reconstruct the fingerprint.

Some say it’s a matter of time before someone brings a lawsuit against 24 Hour Fitness in connection with this cardless check-in, we’ll see what happens!