According to technology-news blogger TechCrunch, MasterCard is currently working on a 'biometric authentication app'. The app, which will also support fingerprint-biometrics, is to be launched across Europe first and worldwide in 2017.
The 'MasterCard Identity Check', or 'selfie pay' app will allow customers to confirm online payments, by using their smartphone's camera to 'read' their face. Users will need to register their facial biometric first, by sending MasterCard a selfie. They will be asked to blink - to confirm it’s their own face in shot.
Asked by TechCrunch about safe storage and encryption of the facial biometrics - unlike passwords, biometrics can't be changed - a spokesperson for MaterCard said, "As an industry, we are moving toward storing biometrics in all instances at the device level. Fingerprints are stored at the device level and we are currently prototyping facial recognition to be converted and stored as encrypted code on some devices. MasterCard (...) is developing decentralised solutions wherever possible."
Motivations for developing the app mentioned included speeding up the e-commerce transactions and reducing the risk of fraud.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Martha Sparrius. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
