Biometrical data is becoming an increasingly frequent way to log into phones and tablets, due to it being quick and unique to each person. What’s more, with the popularity of cashless payments exploding in the last couple of years thanks to contactless, a need for secure authentication methods is being driven at hard – after all, cards can be stolen. So far there are two favoured methods of payment that utilise biometric information: mobile and online.
Apple Pay pioneered the use of a biometric fingerprint scanner to pay for mobile purchases such as apps, with Samsung and Google since following suit. Not only this, but with mobile banking on the rise, some high-street banks are incorporating biometric data to log-in to their services. So, what’s next for biometrics being used for online payments?
GDPR compliance
Biometrical payments are likely to grow over the next few years thanks to the recently implemented GDPR laws. Thanks to this, data protection is becoming a top priority for businesses. As biometric data is unique to the person using it, such security threats and data breaches are minimised. Not only this, but it’s arguably also more reliable as a form of payment due to not having to rely on pin numbers, passwords or physical cards.
Customer satisfaction
While EPOS and POS systems such as the ones used in restaurants and retail are being updated all the time, biometrics aren’t quite standardised as a form of payment yet; the best we have is contactless, with 52% of in-store transactions being contactless in July 2018. With customer satisfaction at the forefront of company decisions and developments, it’s likely that biometrics will eventually be accepted as payment.
Growth in mobile payments
While the e-commerce market is ripening at an exponential rate – in 2017 there were 45.36 million e-commerce users in the UK alone – the mobile market made up only 10% of this. In the future, it would be unsurprising if biometrics helps to popularise this form of payment as companies and individuals alike start to push for tighter financial security.