PayPal, Samsung To Roll Out Fingerprint Authorization On New Samsung Galaxy
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
Mobile commerce stands to become more physical with the simple swipe of a finger
For Samsung Galaxy S5 users, e-commerce is literally at their fingertips. On Monday, PayPal and Samsung announced that owners of the Samsung Galaxy S5 would be able to log in and shop at any PayPal-accepting merchant with only their fingerprints. For Samsung users, this move into biometrics will not only provide a more secure shopping experience, but it will also cut down on the hassle of remembering passwords and other login information when checking out from PayPal merchants. For PayPal, this move makes the company the first global payments company to support Samsung’s mobile fingerprint authentication technology.
PayPal fingerprint authentication will roll out in April and be available in 26 markets globally, including Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States, the press release said.
Last year, PayPal, along with other members Google and Microsoft, formed the Fast Identity Online Alliance (FIDO) and predicted that logins and passwords would soon be a thing of the past. As Hill Ferguson, chief product officer for PayPal says, the partnership with Samsung ushers in a new age of convenience and security. “By working with Samsung to leverage fingerprint identification technology on their new Galaxy S5, we are able to demonstrate that consumers don’t need to face a tradeoff between security and convenience. With a simple swipe of a finger, consumers can still securely log into their PayPal account to shop and pay with the convenience that mobile devices afford.”
While this development opens up an exciting world of new possibilities for smartphone users and merchants, there could still be some hesitation over this new technology, one analyst from Ovum says. Security concerns continue to be a primary concern for consumers when choosing a payment method. According to Ovum’s 2013 Consumer Insights Survey, nearly half, or 49 percent of respondents ranked security as their primary concern in regards to mobile payments. Ovum’s Eden Zoller says that new technologies and processes, such as this fingerprint login, will most likely cause some users concern and will likely need to be convinced of the technology’s worth in the long run. However, Zoller also says that Samsung and PayPal together are “a powerful combination.” Not only is Samsung a widespread, popular brand, but PayPal is also a well-respected and trusted payment company. While PayPal is the first member of the FIDO Alliance to offer fingerprint authentication, the payments service provider expects that more device manufacturers will adopt this fingerprint authentication technology in the future.