Your selfie will be your new password: MasterCard

Face recognition is possibly the next in line for secure online banking and payments. Though there are risks involves, MasterCard is presently in trial mode for testing out this new feature that could make entering pins and passwords a thing of the past.

The Telegraph reported that MasterCard is working with new technologies to make online banking and payments easier than ever. This involves simply showing your face to the front camera on your smartphone, which will recognize your face to make online payments for you. MasterCard is trying out a new app that will make paying for your online transactions by simply showing your face.

Paying for your transactions online needs a secure form of password entry. With hundreds of online accounts needing different passwords each, people tend to forget their passwords. Fingerprint and biometrics are the next form of secure transactions, but not all smartphones feature these types of inputs. MasterCard is working with selfie mode to help people make transactions with just snapping their photograph rather than entering passwords.

The app converts the photograph into 1s and 0s in the background by using facial recognition technology and then transmits this data to the MasterCard servers for a secure checkout. The servers will compare the codes from the phone with the database stored on its servers. If the two match, the transaction is complete.

Ajay Bhalla, president Enterprise Safety and Security at MasterCard, stated to CNN Money in an interview that MasterCard wants to identify people for who they are and not for what they remember. "We have too many passwords to remember and this creates extra problems for consumers and businesses. The new generation, which is into selfies ... I think they'll find it cool. They'll embrace it," he continued.

He further mentioned that MasterCard will keep this information safe and secure and will not reconstruct the photo from the data being transmitted. At present, the company is trying out the new technology with around 500 customers and will plan for a broader trial later this year. It is also experimenting with fingerprint scanning and voice recognition as other forms of secure identification.

Earlier this year, a British tech firm has been known to launch the emoji-based password system, which is one of the first in the world. The system allows people to login to accounts using a set of emoji characters instead of PINs and passwords.

As far as selfie face recognition is concerned, it is yet to be confirmed whether the app can be fooled by simply showing a printed photograph to the front camera. Tests are presently in the works and results will be out as soon as the developers and security experts give their verdict.