Biometrics Beyond Fingerprints

The world has been quick to adopt seamless digital payments, and scammers are quicker to find vulnerabilities and flaws they can exploit.

According to Deloitte, synthetic identity fraud is expected to generate losses of at least US$23 billion by 2030. We need more reliable security measures like biometric authentication that can withstand the pace of innovation in the digital payments space.

Fingerprints sound like a synonym for biometrics, but they are no longer sufficient. This blog highlights multiple other biometric authentication methods and why we need them.

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Rise of biometrics in digital payments 

Security measures like passwords, PINs, and patterns no longer provide effective security for digital payments because they are vulnerable to attacks such as phishing, brute force, and social engineering.

With greater reliability on electronic devices come extremely sensitive data inputs which can cause significant damage during security breaches. MFA (multi-factor authentication) patterns inclusive of a biometric layer offering higher personalization are the way to go.

That combined with customer’s growing need for user-friendly and stronger security systems is driving the adoption of biometric authentication that uses unique physical or behavioral characteristics like fingerprints, facial recognition, voice patterns, and more.

Another factor that makes biometrics highly incorporable is no additional hardware or equipment requirements. The technology has been making slow but major improvements offering improved accuracy and security.

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Advantages of biometric systems in digital payments

Here’s why emerging biometrics in digital payments is the way forward:

• Improved security - Biometrics such as facial recognition, voice patterns, iris scanning, and so on are unique to each individual and very difficult to replicate, providing an effective security step against fraud.
• Convenience - Biometrics-enabled payments reduce friction because customers do not need a physical card or the need to remember passwords or PINs. 
• Speed - Biometrics now offers enhanced accuracy offering speedy processing and verification of transactions.
• Contactless - Customers do not need physical devices of any sort to process payments or verify them as biometrics like facial recognition payments are contactless.
• Personalized - This technology comes with valuable insights on customers which businesses can use to offer more personalized customer experiences and products.
• Inclusivity - Biometrics can cater to people who struggle with remembering passwords or other disabilities, making payments more inclusive.
• Customer satisfaction - Personalized and high-security experiences lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In the future, this technology will have more good things in store for the payments industry that’s a mix of convenience and security.

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Emerging biometric methods for digital payments

From behavioral biometrics to decentralized storage, there’s been massive innovation in biometrics. Check out the emerging biometric methods:

1. Multimodal Biometrics

This method does not use one but multiple biometric types like fingerprints, facial recognition, and voice verification together. This multi-step authentication improves accuracy, security threshold, and reduces the chances of errors. According to recent studies, multimodal biometrics offer 99% improved accuracy and security.

2. Behavioral Biometrics

Behavioral biometrics is a result of user behavior customers exhibit. It can range from aspects like typing speed or rhythm, swipe gestures or touchscreen movement, signature analysis, and more. It can even detect and record the way a customer holds their phone for authentication. Human behavior is again unique and because it is also invisible, it is difficult to replicate. Behavioral biometrics is projected to reach $3.92 billion by 2025.

3. Passive Authentication During Usage

Authentication does not necessarily have to be at fixed touchpoints like log-in or checkout. Passive authentication scans a user's behavior across the entire time of usage to pick any unusual user behavior and flag them immediately. This method works great because it does not tamper with user experience and offers real-time monitoring.

4. Advanced Eye Recognition for Security

Just like fingerprints, each one of us has unique eye structures. The latest eye recognition technology takes it a step ahead of traditional iris scanning, to include retinal scans and eye movement analysis. Because the chances of this authentication method failing is 0.1%, it is an ideal biometric method for high-security environments like payments.

5. 3D Facial Recognition

The most recent advancement in facial recognition is 3D which uses depth perception to map facial features more accurately. This enhances apt facial recognition and leaves little chance of spoofing. The 3D facial recognition market is expected to touch a revenue of $15.84 billion globally by 2030.

6. Voice Biometrics with AI-Based Liveness Detection

Voice biometrics have grown beyond recognizing voices that can be mimicked. This technology now analyzes a user’s vocal patterns to detect and recognize minute changes that are very difficult to mimic. It also offers AI-based liveness detection that can pick traces of recorded voice vs a live person.

7. Contactless Vein Mapping

Fingerprints are on the outer surface and have a slight possibility of reproduction. Veins on the other hand are hidden, making them extremely difficult to replicate, which means they offer heightened security. Palm vein mapping recognition scans the unique vein patterns of a user’s palm to authenticate transactions. Above all, this method is contactless and offers safe and hygienic authentication.

8. Fingerprint Sensors on Cards

This method offers an in-built fingerprint sensor on payment cards like credit and debit cards. This technology matches the fingerprint of the cardholder to that of the fingerprint stored on cards to authenticate a transaction. It requires no additional step like inputting a PIN. This method is gaining traction and slowly making its way to becoming the top choice of customers.

9. Decentralized Storage and Verification

With privacy concerns around biometric data storage on the rise, blockchain is being explored to store and use biometric data securely. The primary intent is to reduce the risks of centralization by distributing storage and repositories that are difficult to track and access. Because this method has great potential to reduce cybersecurity threats, it is being widely considered in multiple industries.

10. Federated Learning and Homomorphic Encryption

This method is a blend of data privacy and security in biometric systems. The aim of federated learning is to process data in a device without the need to transfer sensitive data to the cloud. On the other hand, homomorphic encryption reads and processes encrypted data directly without decrypting it first.

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Common emerging biometrics adoption challenges businesses can face 

You also need to be aware of the challenges facing your business if you want to successfully adopt the emerging biometrics in digital payments. Here are common adoption challenges you can come across:

• Data security concerns - Biometrics are sensitive and extremely personal data which when breached can do irreversible damage because the unique biometric features cannot be reset.
• Implementation costs - Since most of the methods are fairly new and the technology and infrastructure required are limited, it can get really expensive to be able to integrate it into your ecosystem. There are initial as well as ongoing costs for maintenance tied to this technology.
• User resistance - Not everyone is comfortable or agrees with sharing their sensitive biometrics data. There is a high degree of resistance that stems from privacy concerns and religious sentiments.
• Technical reliability - Accuracy in biometric authentication is always dependent on factors like camera quality, lighting, no changes in physical appearance, and more. If not up to the mark, there is a high probability of false positives that damage user experience.
• Integrations - Biometric authentication, though not requiring additional hardware, needs integration prowess. Businesses that operate on legacy systems need heavy system upgrades or a complete revamp, which can get expensive.
• Compliance - Dealing with sensitive data like biometrics attracts regulatory compliance like GDPR. It is a challenge to keep up with the ever-changing regulations and the complexities to ensure compliance, failure of which attracts penalties.

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Conclusion

Now that you know the benefits and challenges of emerging biometrics in digital payments, it boils down to the payment provider you choose to partner with.

Your choice of providers directly affects the safety, security, and accessibility of your business and its customers. You need a payment provider that can offer the best of the latest advancements in the payment technology space because. They can handle all the nuances there are to implementing biometric authentication and plug it into your ecosystem for you to just hit the play button.

Payby offers advanced fraud detection and prevention mechanisms integrated into the payment gateway to keep you secure. Our AI-based fraud monitoring, 3D secure authentication, and transaction risk analysis model ensure safe processing.

Get started with Payby today.