MasterCard wants to verify your online payments with a selfie

MasterCard is attempting to make online payments faster and more secure by using biometric identification. The company is reportedly planning to introduce a new pilot program that will allow shoppers to authorise a payment with a selfie instead of a password.

​The feature will be part of MasterCard's Identity Check app, which will push a notification to your phone, asking you to verify a transaction you've initiated. You can then tap to pay, align your face in the circle drawn in the app and then blink to click a selfie (so the app knows it's a photo being clicked in real time). That picture is then cross referenced with a selfie you've clicked within the app when you enrolled, using facial recognition software. Once that checks out, your transaction goes through. 

The company believes users will be happy to use the new technology as it reduces the number of passwords they have to memorise, as well as offering close to the same convenience as saving your passwords to a digital wallet, while still ensuring your passwords can't be obtained hackers.

You can check out the video in action below.