No longer happy with just allowing for fingerprint-scanning confirmation for mobile payments, Mastercard is now looking to bring in banking through facial scanning, dawning the age of selfie payments.
According to the New York Post, the selfie payments technology developed by the company will be called ID Check and is part of an agreement reached between the major mobile payment players including Google, Apple and Samsung.
It will in effect turn your phone’s camera into a biometric reader, much like the fingerprint scanners. which are in the latest high-end phone models like the iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6.
The service will be accessed on the phone through an app that will ask the user to blink once into the camera, which is aimed at offering protection from someone just holding a photo of someone up to the camera to bypass the security layer.
Mastercard’s president for enterprise safety and security, Ajay Bhalla, has been quick to assure Mastercard customers that the biometric data stored will be stored on the company’s servers, but dismissed the notion that someone who accesses its systems would be able to see your stored image.
The company will now be looking to begin testing its ID Check service among 500 customers in the coming weeks, with plans to launch it worldwide next year, and it will sign deals with two unidentified banks to roll out the service.
Selfie in a business suit image via Shutterstock
