Selfies Get More Annoying, Replace Passwords

A credit card company is predicting that all passwords will be replaced with selfies within the next five years as a way to protect against fraud and theft.

In a trial run, MasterCard is rolling out a technology called MasterCard Identity Check, designed to allow users to make a payment or otherwise use their cards “simply by placing a finger on the scanner of their smartphone, or blinking into its selfie camera to prove their identity,” reports Sophie Curtis of the Telegraph newspaper in London.

“We believe that security is one of the barriers which is actually inhibiting expansion of e-commerce, because people have to remember passwords and because it is very inconvenient,” Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise security solutions for the credit card company, tells The Telegraph. “The idea is these technologies should actually change your life, and make it extremely convenient to do shopping on e-commerce sites or on your mobile phone. That’s what we are trying to refine in these programs.”

This development follows on the heels of a British firm’s release of the world’s first emoji-only password, in which a user selects a four-emoji code instead of numbers or letters.

For more on this development that combines vanity with a reduced reliance on memory, read here.