The growth of controversial biometric payment methods.
Visa – one of the world’s two biggest payments processors – appears to be moving into biometric data-based authentication, at least according to a patent it has applied for. And Visa claims that this would be fully privacy-friendly.
Visa is in this way joining Mastercard, but also Microsoft and Google, who are all exploring ultimately similar methods, for the sake of what they say is preventing physical data theft, and abuse of deepfakes.
And Google’s, Apple’s and Samsung’s payment services already provide the so-called seamless payment experience – while Amazon app’s Just Walk Out replaces checkout with what’s said to be “a similar experience” to what Visa plans to achieve.
If Visa’s patent – designed, according to the giant’s filing, to provide “biometric templates for privacy preserving authentication” – is approved and implemented, the end result would be replacement of PINs with biometric identification.
The method would be used at ATMs, payment checkouts, and Visa made sure to note that the technology’s use can be extended to unlocking apartments or letting people into venues like theaters, amusement parks, etc.
These latter, non-payment scenarios would allow Visa to monetize the patent via licensing to other companies.
The rationale for using such a system is said to be to improve security of user information in physical spaces.
The patent states that the system would work by customers enrolling into the program which means creating “a biometric template” on their device.
This data is encrypted and signed, and that signature, rather than the biometric information, is used by “access device” to verify the signature.
This, Visa said in the filing, is what preserves privacy, since the templates are stored on the user device rather than “in some giant database.”
This appears to be the key point the company is trying to make with the proposed patent, and was careful to stress that security breaching of such databases results in “disastrous” consequences.
That’s because the use of biometrics is at once safer than that of PINs and passwords, but also much riskier, given that unauthorized access provides those behind a hack to a large amount of personal information.
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