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MasterCard To Approve Online Payments Using Your Selfies
An anonymous reader writes: MasterCard is experimenting with a new program: approving online purchases with a facial scan. Once you’re done shopping online, instead of a password, the service will require you to snap a photo of your face, so you won’t have to worry about remembering a password. The Stack reports: "MasterCard will be joining forces with tech leaders Apple, BlackBerry, Google, Samsung and Microsoft as well as two major banks to help make the feature a reality. Currently the international group uses a SecureCode solution which requires a password from its customers at checkout. The system was used across 3 billion transactions last year, the company said. It is now exploring biometric alternatives to protect against unauthorized payment card transactions. Customers trialling the new technologies are required to download the MasterCard app onto their smart device. At checkout two authorization steps will be taken; fingerprint recognition and facial identification using the device's camera. The system will check for blinking to avoid criminals simply holding a photograph up to the lens."
Obviously this has ridiculously low security, but the way chargebacks work if there is a fraudulent purchase with it, the merchant wears the cost. Not Mastercard. So there's no downside for Mastercard, and the upside is the novelty value will have narcissists using it... and spending more. "Once approved, the chargeback cancels the financial transaction, and the consumer receives a refund of the money they spent. When a chargeback occurs, the merchant is accountable, regardless of whatever measures they took to verify the transaction. In 2013, LexisNexis reported that merchants pay up to US$2.79 for every $1 lost in fraudulent transactions." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...