Mastercard appears ready to do away with passwords and begin using biometrics for online identity verification. They have joined the FIDO Alliance. FIDO stands for Fast IDentity Online.
MasterCard joining push for fingerprint
ID standard
SAN FRANCISCO — MasterCard is joining
the FIDO Alliance, signaling that the payment network is getting
interested in using fingerprints and other biometric data to identify
people for online payments.
MasterCard will be the first major
payment network to join FIDO. The Alliance is developing an open
industry standard for biometric data such as fingerprints to be used
for identification online. The goal is to replace clunky passwords
and take friction out of logging on and purchasing using mobile
devices.
Apple's new iPhone 5s smartphone has a
fingerprint sensor, but the tech giant is not part of FIDO. However,
Google is part of the Alliance, and devices running Google's Android
operating system will have fingerprint sensors by next year.
The addition of MasterCard will help
FIDO expand its standard to more types of transactions. The company's
experience handling the multitude of existing payments-industry
standards will also be valuable.
"Our involvement with the FIDO
Alliance, as well as other activities across the industry, will help
deliver strong security for consumers, merchants and issuers, as well
as a great consumer experience," said Ed McLaughlin, chief
emerging payments officer at MasterCard.
Joining FIDO will give MasterCard
different ways of identifying people and help it decide when to use
those techniques, depending on the situation.
FIDO is trying to standardize lots of
different ways of identifying people online, not just through
biometric methods.
