Selfie Pay

Just when we thought tech innovation had stalled!

Here is MasterCard trialling a new technology that allows online shoppers to authorise a transaction with a face snapshot instead of a password.

HOW?

Published recently in the USA Today:

“For the selfie generation, it might be the perfect way to pay. More than 200 employees are taking part in a two-month pilot….in which they verify who they are with either a scan of a fingerprint or a smartphone selfie.

To use MasterCard’s selfie payment option, a customer would need to download it’s Identity Check app. Then, if they are buying a product from a merchant that requires their identity to be verified, they will get a push notification to their mobile device, which opens the app. They can then hold up their phone, like taking a selfie, blink, ‘and you’re done’

It’s a seamless, smooth experience. The blink prevents a criminal from just holding up another person’s picture…..A facial recognition scan converts your features into a string of ones and zeros.

MasterCard isn’t the only credit card company working on new ways to check out. Visa has developed a blueprint to enable the use of fingerprints, a face, palm and other biometrics as verification.

And MasterCard is also looking at the possibility of voice recognition or even a person’s heartbeat being able to confirm who they are.”

IS THIS SIMPLY A GIMMICK?

No: According to a survey of 10,000 consumers commissioned by MasterCard, one third of customers have bailed out on an online purchase simply because they couldn’t remember their password. Count me in on this one, even sites where I’m sure I know my password have rejected me on occasion!

Solution: With no PIN required, or password to remember, consumers could be smiling and buying at the same time.

Peter Irvine
www.peterirvine.com

Peter is Co-Founder of Gloria Jean’s Coffees, author of ‘Win In Business’ and ‘Building your Business, your People, your Life’ and keynote speaker.