Biometrics Poised To Become Predominant Mobile-Commerce Authentication Method: Report

Biometrics will be the secure authentication mechanism for 65% of all mobile-commerce transactions in five years. That’s the forecast from Acuity Marketing Intelligence, a Denver-based research firm, in its “The Global Biometrics and Mobility Report: The Convergence of Commerce and Privacy” report released last week.

The forecast says this will represent 126 billion biometric payment transactions valued at more than $1.1 trillion made on mobile devices.

“The notion is the platform, by 2020, will be nearly a universal platform,” Maxine Most, Acuity principal and lead analyst, tells Digital Transactions News, referencing the availability of biometrics on mobile devices. “The cost curves are going to drop dramatically.”

As more devices, like smart phones and tablets, come equipped with biometric sensors, more organizations will want to tap into them as a way to better authenticate a consumer, she says. As shopping volume on mobile devices increases, along comes a greater potential for fraud requiring a tougher stance on risk assessment for the transaction and a need for better authentication, Most says.

One factor in her forecast is what’s happening with Apple Pay, Apple Inc.’s mobile-payment service, and other similar services.

“The good news about Apple Pay is you’re training hundreds of millions of people to use biometrics as a convenience factor,” Most says. Consumers use the biometric sensor in their iPhones and iPads as a convenience tool to bypass inputting a PIN. The biometric, as currently used for Apple Pay, authenticates the device, not the user, she says.

“The folks that are providing the technology are learning about what it’s going to take to create a hardened biometric, where the biometric becomes hardened security and not just an overlay for a PIN and password,” she says. “The proliferation of biometrics as a convenience is allowing us to have a massive consumer exercise go on.”