Biometrics, badge or QR code: what can you deploy?
The terminals recognise six methods. The choice is not primarily technical: three of them are biometric data, and their use in the workplace is regulated. Here is what you need to decide before ordering hardware.
The six methods
What each one does, what it requires, and where it fails.
Fingerprint
The reader compares a template computed from the finger. Fast, inexpensive, but useless with gloves and degraded on damaged or very dry hands.
Facial recognition
The module combines visible light and infrared, which makes it usable in variable lighting. It is also the most legally exposed method.
Palm recognition
Reads the vein network or palm lines, without contact. Tolerates dirty or wet hands, where fingerprint fails.
RFID badge
125 kHz proximity. The access-control standard: cheap, replaceable when lost, but easily lent from one employee to another.
NFC badge
Same principle as RFID, on a more recent frequency. Lets a phone act as a badge where the device fleet allows it.
QR code
The employee presents a code shown on their phone. Nothing to hand out, no sensitive data, but it depends on the employee’s phone.
What the legal framework says
In Switzerland as in the European Union, the dividing line runs not between technologies but between categories of data.
Three of the six methods are sensitive data
Fingerprint, face and palm are biometric data under the GDPR and Swiss data protection law. Badge, NFC and QR code are not. That is the dividing line that matters, before any technical consideration.
An impact assessment is expected
Deploying a biometric device in the workplace means documenting the necessity of the processing, the absence of a less intrusive alternative, and the security measures chosen. This assessment is prepared before the hardware is ordered, not after.
In France, timekeeping is not access control
The CNIL’s standard regulation on workplace biometrics covers devices controlling access to premises, applications and work tools. Time tracking is not its object: justifying biometrics for timekeeping alone is markedly harder.
Badge and QR remain the simple route
None of the three constraints above applies to RFID, NFC or QR code. In most of the rollouts we support, that combination meets the need without opening a legal file.
This page describes a general framework and does not replace legal advice. We help you frame the choice, not qualify your processing.
Six questions to settle it
In our experience, the decision comes down to these six points, in this order.
What does not change
Whichever method you choose, Illizeo receives the same timestamps and produces the same result: the day rebuilt, eleven alerts, six counters and the payroll export.
Let us talk about your site before we talk hardware
The right terminal depends on your flows, your hygiene constraints and what you are allowed to collect. We look at all three together.
