Amazon files patent for payment-by-selfie tech

Dive Brief:

• Amazon has filed for a patent for pay-by-selfie technology similar to that demonstrated last year by Alibaba/Alipay founder Jack Ma and by MasterCard, Re/Code reports.
• The development of fingerprint and facial recognition is an attempt to get past the clunkiness and other inadequacies of using Personal Identification Numbers or passwords to pay, which are easily forgotten, or, if stored, somewhat easily accessible.
• Apparently, Amazon’s technology would require the user to make a motion, like a head-tilt, that would identify the user and prevent thieves from just holding up a picture of the user to access payment.

Dive Insight:

Getting away from PINs or passwords may seem like an obvious development in cyber-security, but privacy advocates don’t like the idea of companies using faces to pay. They warn that, without proper privacy protections in place, the Internet of Things could become the “Loophole of Things” that eventually might allow companies or government to  run amok with access to our data, as advocate Alvaro M. Bedoya put it last year. For the full article click here

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