Mastercard has announced a new program for its clients that will use fingerprint scanning and facial recognition

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Retailing is transforming quickly. Retailers are making every possible effort to make the retail experience as effortless as possible, while introducing their customers to their products, servicing them and then getting payment quickly.

Mastercard has announced a new program for its clients that will use fingerprint scanning and facial recognition in the future. The use of your card will no longer be necessary. Biometric payment, dubbed as Biometric Checkout Program, has been initiated in several retail spaces throughout the world. Sold as a very simple means of secured payment, all the customer needs to do is scan their faces through a smartphone app. This will become a substitute for the usual card used to buy products. This technology can be seen already implemented by Apple.

The responses found from the research Master Card has done has shown that consumers love biometrics, making payment at a store as convenient as possible,

Although it’s very convenient to use, since it is hassle free and card free, many people are concerned about their privacy and safety if they use this method of payment. Does this method collect all their confidential information in one go? Mastercard has said the data collected will be encrypted so their safety will be guaranteed. Mastercard has partnered with other firms such as PopID, Fujitsu, PayFace and others for this feature.

For their part, Mastercard anticipates nearly 1.4 Billion customers will adopt this biometric payment system by 2025.

Security Authorities are concerned that this new method of payment can become hackable in the near future, and the images and information gathered used for more nefarious purposes. As new products and technology develop and is introduced, so too the many challenges to protect the citizen user at large.