MasterCard released their Identity Check app in early October, which is now available in 12 countries across Europe and set to be released globally in 2017. While this app has gotten the most attention for it’s ‘selfie pay’ feature, supporting the use of facial recognition in place of a password, it additionally supports fingerprint biometrics as an authentication option with MasterCard SecureCode.
Following trials in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, MasterCard has launched their Identity Check app which supports different methods for cardholders to complete authentication via MasterCard SecureCode. This comes less than one year after MasterCard first announced the authentication app, now rolling out the Identity Check app and features they demoed earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress.
Where available, MasterCard cardholders can download the Identity Check app, verify their information, and then take a picture to set up a facial biometric reading. When using MasterCard SecureCode at checkout and authentication is required, the cardholder can receive a notification on their mobile phone rather than use a static or one-time-use password. Opening the notification opens the app where the cardholder can take a picture that will be compared against the stored facial biometric reading. The app uses live facial recognition requiring the user to blink, and cardholders can use the fingerprint scanners on their mobile devices to provide biometric authentication instead of taking a picture.
Although trials took place in the U.S. and Canada, the initial launch of MasterCard Identity Check is limited to Europe including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. According to Engadget, MasterCard will make Identity Check available “across the globe” beginning in 2017. MasterCard said the new authentication methods supported with Identity Check will “dramatically” speed up checkout “while also improving security.”
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