Your online payments could soon be authorized with a selfie
Make an online payment with your credit card and you're probably used to having to enter a password or PIN. But if a trial scheme by MasterCard takes off, this could become a thing of the past. The finance company is testing out a new payment authorization technique including fingerprint scanning and facial recognition.
MasterCard is working with Apple, BlackBerry, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung to introduce the biometric checks. The initial plan is to trial the system with 500 participants before possibly rolling it out on a larger scale. It's something that MasterCard believes will be welcomed by millennials and should simplify the process of making payments from a smartphone.
Demonstrating the system to CNNMoney, it showed how payments could be authorized with a quick touch of a fingerprint scanner, something Apple and Samsung have already implemented. The other option is to use facial recognition. A clear security concern here is that as well as authorizing payments by pointing a cameraphone at one's face, the system might be foiled by simply using a photograph. To get around this problem, users will be required to blink to indicate that they are a real person.
MasterCard says that privacy is maintained by not transmitting or saving images of fingers or faces. Scans are digitized and sent encoded to authorization servers. It's not something that is going to appeal to everyone, but Ajay Bhalla from the company says: "The new generation, which is into selfies. I think they'll find it cool. They'll embrace it".
Other possible authorization techniques include heartbeat pattern checking and voice recognition. But for now, it's the trial of facial and fingerprint scanning to look out for -- you might be using your face to make your next purchase.
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