Google aims to kill passwords by year end

London: Google is all set to kill passwords with Project Abacus, unveiled during the tech giant’s recent I/O conference.

In fact, the technology will be tested by leading financial companies during trials starting in June. The system is primarily designed to work on smartphones and works by checking critical physical features and attributes.

Which means, instead of asking traditional numerical passwords, the phone will now scan the user's face, voice etc. It even registers who you swipe the phone.
All this information is then fed into the API, which will then generate a ‘trust score’.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Google’s Dan Kaufman said the password-killing technology should be available to every Android developer by the end of 2016, “if all goes well”.

Trust API was revealed by Daniel Kaufman, the head of Google’s research unit ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects), TechCrunch reports. It stems from the ideas of Project Abacus, a plan which aimed to free users of the many passwords and PINs they must remember on a daily basis.

“We have a phone, and these phones have all these sensors in them. Why couldn’t it just know who I was, so I don't need a password? I should just be able to work,” Kaufman said, TechCrunch reports.

Rather than using a two-factor authentication system, as is seen in many secure logins, Project Abacus uses a ‘Trust Score.’ A Trust Score is built using a combination of personal factors, including typing patterns, current location and etc.