What are biometrics?

Biometrics is a term that is thrown around commonly when discussing credit card security and where the future of credit cards are heading. We’ve been told that it will be completely secure and will hit credit card fraudsters hard. But what exactly is it?

The easiest way to describe biometrics is that it is you. We’ve all seen the movies where someone has to use their fingerprint or have their retina scanned to open a secure area. Facial recognition and voice recognition technology has been in use for over a decade. That is in essence what biometrics are. It is using something that is unique to you to authenticate a user. It is quite possible that you are using it to read this as some phones can use biometrics to allow a user access.

The benefits of this are obvious for credit cards. No more signing a receipt and no more entering a PIN number or trying desperately to cover it up from prying eyes. Now just dip your card and place your finger on the scanner. The scanner could be a device hooked up to the payment terminal or, as MasterCard is working on, on the credit card itself. This new technology is being tested in South Africa and MasterCard is attempting to introduce it to the rest of the world by the end of 2017. Even so, with the infrastructure upgrade that would be required this technology will not become mainstream for several more years.

When the new card is released the customer will go to whoever is releasing the card like a bank and will have their fingerprints scanned. The chip on the card will store your fingerprint on an encrypted file. The card being tested is the same thickness as a regular credit card with a thumbnail sized rectangular scanner at the top right so it is easy to press while dipping. Perhaps the best part is that the authentication process happens almost instantaneously! The process is intuitive to pick up so its adaptation should be much more seamless than the more recent EMV transition.

Think about it, now only you can use your credit card for an in-store purchase. A thief cannot steal your card and masquerade as you as their fingerprint will not match and the transaction will be denied. The chip can store a maximum of two fingerprints so you will be the only person able to use the card. That also means that giving your kid the card to go get something at the concession stand at a ballgame will also lead to a denial though, a small price to pay. Merchants will (in theory) not need to upgrade their equipment but anyone who is still using a magnetic stripe machine will need to upgrade (c’mon what are you waiting for?) as these cards will only work with the EMV terminals. This sounds like a win/win for merchants.

There are drawbacks of course. Will it be possible to lift someone’s fingerprint and use it? Somebody has probably already tried. Of course there is no way to verify an online transaction so it is quite possible that while all but ending in-store credit card fraud it will just push more of it to the virtual world. How long will it take before someone will be able to remove your fingerprint from the chip and replace it with their own? There are a lot of questions but it is quite possible that this is the next great leap in credit card technology.