Once the
stuff of spy thrillers and futuristic movie sagas, biometrics appear ready to
ramp up in the next year as an accepted system for authenticating user
identity, according to a report in Mobile Commerce Daily.
One
company, Mitek Systems, even goes so far as to predict that biometrics will be
incorporated in almost 50% of mobile financial transactions in 2016, thanks to
new programs such as Apple’s Touch ID.
“We see a
lot of interest in the kill-the-password movement,” said Sarah Clark, Mitek’s
vice president of product.
A number of
financial institutions have been piloting identity verification systems due to
the rise in customers wanting to open accounts through their mobile devices.
These customers don’t want to deal with a bricks-and-mortar location and they
may not have a secure computer. According to Mitek, 86% of the millennial age
group handle financial transactions on a mobile device, usually a smartphone.
At one time
people may have been spooked by the idea of using their fingerprints or facial
and voice recognition as an ID. Now consumers seem totally comfortable with the
concept.
Biometric
authentication is likely to spread to other applications, such as point-of-sale
systems, campus ID cards, and online test-taking.