What the Announcement of the MasterCard ‘Selfie’ Means for Consumer & Mobile Biometrics

The mobile banking and financial services world is changing drastically to keep up with the dynamic consumer landscape as people become more and more mobile-oriented. This week MasterCard launched new mobile technologies that will allow customers to authenticate their online purchases using mobile biometrics, selfies and fingerprints — ‘selfie pay.’

MasterCard ‘selfie pay’ is intended to ease the process of verifying transactions as consumers make more purchases online and on mobile devices. The fingerprint recognition uses the biometric device built into the users smartphone, just as other banks (and ApplePay, Samsung Pay, etc.) have been releasing. The selfie scan will verify that it is a live selfie, instead of a previously taken photo by requiring the user to blink during the scan process. This would be a simple solution for consumers who are always looking for a more convenient solution to passwords, while the entity would still like to be able to ensure the security of the authentication method.

As we brought to light in last weeks blog on how to position yourself or organization as an innovator in today’s digital world, brands must rethink how they present themselves to consumers as people re-assess their wants and needs. MasterCard is a great example of a brand doing just that with the release of their mobile biometrics authentication ‘Selfie Pay’.

MasterCard wants to ditch the old-fashioned password and use selfies to approve online purchases.

The release of this new MasterCard program comes in sequence with the MasterCard andPRIME Research fourth annual MasterCard Mobile Payments Study. As found on Biometric Update, the study shows that digital wallets are seeing a rise in social conversations worldwide, with the last year seeing an increase in every region including Asia Pacific (+159%), Europe (+144%), Latin America and the Caribbean (+20%), Middle East and Africa (+111%) and North America (+519%). The study also found a total of 2 million global social media posts addressing mobile payments across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Forums, Google+ and YouTube, reflecting a significant increase from the previous 85,000 posts reported in 2012.

There will be lots of buzz in the media in the coming months regarding different banks and payment companies offering different methods of mobile biometrics… MasterCard said it’s also working on other ways to authenticate purchases, including monitoring a customer’s heartbeat. Iris scans and voice recognition are also being explored. HSBC is also looking into releasing voice recognition authentication.

What does this mean? It means that mobile biometrics are becoming the norm across the world. Although it certainly is an advanced technology, people are no longer viewing it as “next-generation” and rather embracing it globally for its increased convenience and security. As more and more banks, and other applications requiring a secure login start following the growing trend, the number of users adopting biometrics into their everyday life will only increase.

It’s very exciting to see these innovations entering the market with such enthusiam , yet as a point of caution, as in examples like the MasterCard selfie where the biometric is being enrolled on the user’s smart phone, these companies are relying on consumers to self-identify during the enrollment process. There is no 3rd party, system or platform that is verifying the identity of the person that matches up with the mobile phone and with each new type, there is no connection being made to verify that the ‘selfie,’ fingerprint, voice are all the same person other than that it’s on the same phone. Theoretically, someone could take my phone and add their template to it saying that they are me. In the end, the best technical / most secure solution will win.