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To defend its position in the financial payment space , MasterCard announced the launch of payment by selfie at the MWC 2016 held in Barcelona . It has tested the Identity Check™ technology in a pilot program with 500 participants in the United States and the Netherlands in 2015 . By this year Master Card is planning to roll out this feature in 14 countries including US , Canada , UK , France and Germany . Austria is planned to receive it in 2017 .
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MasterCard is leveraging Daon ' s IdentityX platform as one of the technologies in Identity Check™ . Identity Check has a layered approach to security which includes device cryptography , geolocation and biometric verification thus , providing a secure and convenient environment for making payments .
On the other hand technology giant Google is working on its multi-factor authentication system “ Hands Free ” for removing friction in payments . Hands Free eliminates the need of pulling out smartphone and tapping it on the POS machine . It uses multiple technologies such as Bluetooth , Wi-Fi and location services to detect when you ' re at a store and combines customer ' s initials , phone and picture to complete the transaction . Thus , it can even be used with smart phones that doesn ' t support NFC .
Customers setup the app with their credit card information and a selfie picture . While making payment at the participating store , customers just need to say , “ I ' ll pay with Google ” to complete the transaction . The cashier then verifies customer ' s identity by asking their initials and comparing the picture linked to their Hands Free account . Thus , it amounts to paying with just your voice which is definitely convenient and uber cool .
Google launched a pilot for Hands Free this year in March and is currently available in selected stores in U . S . including McDonald ' s and Papa John ' s .
After patenting one-click buying , online retail giant , Amazon , has filed a patent application for a mobile payments technology that will allow users to authenticate themselves via a photo or a video . This would work in conjunction with another patent that Amazon holds for a technology which enables a device to authenticate an individual through photo or video .
The user will be required to perform certain actions , motions or gestures such as to smile blink or tilt his or her head to ensure a swindler is not simply displaying a photo of the individual linked to the account . The patent suggests that the technology could be used on a number of devices , including desktops , laptops , phones and tablets .
Currently no official confirmation related to selfie technology has been provided by Apple but rumours abound . Apple ' s latest acquisition of facial and emotion recognition start-up Emotient and facial expression capture solution provider Faceshift is adding to these rumours . It is to be seen when will Apple come up with its own version of facial recognition technology for payment authentication ? And whether or not it could replicate the success it achieved with its fast and reliable fingerprint sensor technology .
The success of any major technology relies on its simplicity , effectiveness and if it ' s a financial technology then heavily on its security aspect . To gain acceptance , “ Selfie Payments ” need to prove that it ' s really a secure form of payment authentication . However , looking at the past failures of introducing facial recognition technology in market this task is easier said than done . There have been instances where people even circumvented savvier systems