More than half of consumers are worried about shifting to biometrics for authenticating online payments, a study from Paysafe claims.
The research shows 56 per cent of consumers are concerned this shift to biometrics would ‘dramatically’ increase the amount of identity fraud. It also found that 81 per cent of consumers still favour using a password for online payments.
‘Lost in Transaction: The end of risk?’ explores consumer attitudes towards biometrics ahead of the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) rollout later in the year. This is an annual report and tracks the changing thoughts of on payments across the UK, US, Canada, Germany and Austria. This year also included Bulgaria for the first time.
SCA comes under PSD2 and will require online payments to use two-factor authentication. Two-tier authentication requires separate levels of authentication which are either something you physically have (a card or a phone), something you know (username or password) and finally something about your body (biometrics).
The report found that 66 per cent of consumers are fearful about being able to pay for goods or services without needing to give a password. Following on, only 37 per cent believe biometrics are more secure than other authentication methods. Reasons given for this fear were a lack of trust.
Other stats include, 45 per cent not wanting companies accessing their biometric details, 31 per cent were concerned their fingerprint could be cloned and used for fraud, and 28 per cent said biometrics just did not seem safe.
While concerns are so strong, biometric adoption is increasing with 54 per cent of British consumers having used it to conduct a payment. Furthermore, 61 per cent of consumers agree biometrics is quicker and more efficient for making payments.
The most commonly used biometric was fingerprints with 38 per cent of respondents having used it. Next was facial recognition with a 17 per cent use rate and voice-activated technology came in third with an 11 per cent usage.
Paysafe chief business development officer Daniel Kornitzer said, “Biometrics are a huge opportunity for the payments industry to combat the increasing risk of card not present fraud. However, it’s not surprising that there is reluctance among consumers to use biometrics as a form of payment authentication when passwords and PINs have been the central pillar of financial data security for at least 20 years.
“News headlines are also dominated with fraud and hacking scandals, so the public are aware of the risks involved when it comes to adopting new services. To overcome this, consumer education is imperative and with SCA coming in September, consumers will need to be aware of the benefits to ensure acceptance and adoption.
“We’ve lived in a password-driven world for many years now and consumers aren’t fully prepared to let go of what they know.”
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