MasterCard planning selfie-based payment system
Credit card company jumps on the alternative payments bandwagon
MasterCard is planning to let customers make purchases with a selfie photograph or by scanning their face.
The credit card company is one of many moving towards more flexible and personal payment systems, and follows the launch of Barclays' bPay devices.
The MasterCard face recognition system also follows touch payments from firms like Visa, and application-based options from Facebook, Apple and Google.
MasterCard told CNN Money that this option is safer and easier than requiring people to remember a password.
The firm currently offers an online security measure called SecureCode, which is password-based.
"The new generation, which is into selfies, I think will find it cool. They'll embrace it," said Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise safety and security at MasterCard.
The system will let people use a fingerprint or face recognition. The latter requires users to stare and blink so that the system knows that it is not dealing with a photograph or perhaps a criminal.
Voice approval is also being tested, according to the CNN Money report.
MasterCard told V3 last year that it was embracing new digital payment methods, including face and fingerprint recognition, citing password problems as a motive.
"We don't want people to remember stuff because they're really horrible at it," said Bob Reany, senior vice president of authentication strategy at MasterCard, at the time.
"Passwords were originally used to get past the guard at the gate, and we really are misusing them. You weren't meant to have 40 of them. It's just not workable."
Reany added that the reuse and misuse of passwords is making this text-based method unworkable.
"There's a big pot gold for the bad guys. They do these attacks on databases of millions of credentials worth thousands of dollars every time you get a compromised card. It's the most attractive thing. You've given yourself a hell of a target," he said.
V3 Latest
Breakthrough in photocatalysts could help solve global warming, Korean scientists claim
Using photocatalysts to convert carbon dioxide into usable energy such as methane or ethane
DeepMind's neural networks can analyse eye scans for disease in seconds
Trained on curated data from Moorfields Eye Hospital, the neural network also shows clinicians how it reached its judgement
Japanese researchers conduct experiment to enable next generation of quantum computers
Yokohama National University demonstrate technology that could lead to a fault-tolerant universal quantum computer
AMD Ryzen and Threadripper news: Threadripper 2990WX now available
Top-of-the-range Threadripper 2990WX now available from Scan, Ebuyer, Overclockers, Novatech and Amazon
Most read
