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."

Comments

Worst. Idea. Ever

[Anonymous Coward]

Never. Use. Biometrics. For. Authentication

Stop using "user-ids" as "passwords"

[shabble]

Once again a company decides to use something that should be equivalent to a user-id as a password and gets it wrong.

This is the same deal as it is with using fingerprints as 'passwords.': http://blog.dustinkirkland.com.....

But biometrics cannot, and absolutely must not, be used to authenticate an identity. For authentication, you need a password or passphrase. Something that can be independently chosen, changed, and rotated.