And how will you be paying? With my face,
Bank will launch the biometric identification program for corporate credit card users this summer. Business reporter Sunny Freeman provides some answers to your questions about MasterCard’s new app.
What is it?
The MasterCard Identity Check mobile app — better known as “selfie pay” — lets users making online purchases confirm their identity through fingerprints or by taking a photo with their smartphones.
How does it work?
A message pops up on a user’s phone asking them to verify a purchase after entering credit card information into an e-commerce site. They click on either fingerprint or face buttons. To confirm the purchase, they put their finger on their phone’s home button or take a picture of themselves. This creates a pattern based on dimensions of their facial features that is converted to an algorithm.
What does a consumer have to do?
To enrol you must provide either a fingerprint or photo. The information is encrypted in the phone or a secure server. When making a purchase, users enter their credit card information. When prompted they hold up the phone and blink so the technology can recognize a real person and not a photo. Once verified, the consumer finishes the purchase.
Where can it be used?
The system works for e-commerce transactions, not in-store payments. It works for merchants who have signed up for the credit card’s SecureCode program, about 8,000 online merchants in Canada. MasterCard said it is also looking into biometrics identification for in-person card use, but its still “very early days.”
Who will get to use selfie pay in Canada?
During the Bank of Montreal’s “soft launch,” only BMO employees in the U.S. and Canada will use it. It will roll out the program to BMO corporate cardholders this summer.
What about other banks?
MasterCard plans to make the technology widely available this summer, but it depends on banks to roll it out.
What’s the benefit?
MasterCard says it is simple and secure. It’s thought to be more secure and more convenient than passwords.
What’s wrong with a password?
Many people try to make their password as simple as possible or use the same password over and over. Fraudsters know this. People also forget their passwords quite easily, so they have to keep changing them — a frustrating experience.
What affects the recognition ability of selfie pay?
MasterCard is still learning from the pilot projects. Early results show beards are not an issue. Hats are not a problem, but glasses can be. Similar facial features among twins can pose a problem and they should probably opt for fingerprint ID, MasterCard says.
What if I lose or gain a lot of weight?
The technology gauges patterns around aspects of your facial features so chances are you should be fine, unless there is a dramatic change in your appearance, MasterCard says.
But what if it doesn’t recognize me? Then, you’d have to re-enroll and take a new picture. What precautions have been taken to guard against fraudsters “spoofing” my biometrics?
The system is part of a two-step verification and is used to back up other identification. Blinking prevents someone from holding up a picture to verify identity.
What’s in it for MasterCard?
The technology could reduce the number of situations in which a consumer is wrongly declined because of suspected fraud, which costs the company billions of dollars a year.
What phones does it work with?
Newer iPhones and Androids.
Do phone makers like Apple have to co-operate with the banks to bring this to more consumers?
No. MasterCard’s app uses Apple’s fingerprint technology and cameras and it but it doesn’t require another level of commitment from Apple, MasterCard says. The use of the camera removes dependency on devices without fingerprint ID, so the app can be used with even more devices.
Where else has it been used?
MasterCard tested it at an American credit union last fall. There has also been a consumer pilot project at International Card Services in the Netherlands. It plans to introduce it to 13 other countries this summer.
What about privacy?
Fingerprint information is stored locally on your phone. For facial recognition, an algorithm is created based on facial features and held on MasterCard’s secure servers. The bank does not store any biometric information. The privacy commissioner has also been consulted.
How popular are biometrics for banking?
Other banks are experimenting with different biometric identification tools including HSBC, which is using voice recognition. In Canada, Manulife introduced voice recognition for callers and Toronto-based Nymi is working with MasterCard and TD Bank to develop credit card authentication based on a user’s heartbeat.