Master Card recently made an announcement of its facial recognition technology which is being referred to as the ‘pay-by-selfie’. This implies that the users wouldn’t have to remember passwords and this technology would reach fourteen countries in the summer of 2016.
This multinational corporation offering financial services has announced the extension of its technology. The announcement of the technology was made during October 2014. This idea was based on the Identity Check App which permits the users to make payments with a facial recognition feature. The company intends to enhance the security that is being offered with the aid of biometric technology. This would improve the experience of the users by making it easy to authenticate user identity for making financial transactions. With the world getting digital with each passing day, this technology can revolutionize the experience of digital shopping.
How does this technology work?
The facial recognition technology is quite simple to use. The customer has to download the app titled “Identity Check”. Whenever a merchant prompts for user identification, the customers will have to make use of a push notification which would trigger the mobile application. The user needs to take a selfie at this point and have to authorize the purchase being made. Several tests have been conducted by the company in many countries. This technology has matured and already has been introduced in several markets.
This technology will bring down a reduction in the risks associated with identity fraud. This would make it difficult for hackers to produce a selfie of the user. Inputting passwords is no longer considered to be safe as fraudsters can easily phish it. However, producing a selfie and interacting on a timely manner during the authorization process is quite complicated. Infecting mobile services to steal the selfie of the users and submitting it in a stealthy way during the transaction is something quite difficult to crack. There is even a need to have malware for the hackers that can gain access to the local storage, application and the camera.
Master Card has made considerable investments in biometric authentication which includes voice recognition and iris technologies. Studies are being carried out on using the heartbeat with the aid of a device such as a bracelet. According to the reports published in the Fortune, banks are trying to introduce biometric technology in order to enhance the security of the customers. HSBC is investing in touch identification and voice recognition technologies. During the year 2013, Barclays already introduced voice recognition feature in the private banking division.