A Step Forward for Biometric Verification
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is an eCommerce and technology company powered by artificial intelligence to create the best business experiences.
They transform the way businesses sell and operate to create an interoperable experience that enables technology infrastructure to be integrated. They also provide the marketing necessary to get off the ground floor running.
Technology and innovation are what fuel Alibaba. Their businesses are built on cloud computing, digital media, and innovative initiatives. They are motivated to build the future infrastructure of eCommerce.
Facial Recognition Today
Facial recognition technologies have evolved to add an extra layer of security for individuals around the world for transactions. It does this by measuring the parameters of an individual’s face, then matching the face in the back-end databank. It has simultaneously become one of the most powerful security tools in this decade.
While it’s primarily used for unlocking phones or used by the algorithm to sort photos, It also has the capabilities to be used for sending and receiving payments.
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An example that Alibaba’s Ant Financial partner has released is a service that allows users to send money through a ‘smile to pay’ verification system. When it comes to facial recognition technology for securing digital payments, China is far ahead of the competition. A more recent leap is Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) enabling customers to pay by giving a smile after ordering their food.
KFC was the first one to adopt this new technology primarily because Alibaba invests in Yum China which operates KFC locations. The payment process doesn’t even require a cell phone either, the facial recognition program assumes they signed up for Alipay, which is the equivalent to PayPal in China. The camera is located at the point-of-sale window and proceeds to scan the customer to match their identity to their account.
This is incredible technology, and there’s a growing amount of applications for biometric verification worldwide.
Future Use Cases
Facial recognition is one of the most secure biometric verification features out there, because, like a fingerprint, it’s unique to only you.
This could effectively shorten the time it takes for payment at a grocery store, simply just grabbing the groceries, scanning your face, and leaving. Transaction times around the world could be cut significantly if we adopted these features into stores everywhere.
This technology can be used for a lot of good in the future. Walking into a store and being able to pay with a simple smile is not only a great security feature but also a way to spread some positivity. After all, a smile is a nice gesture.
What Comes Next
It’s crucially important that this technology is used for only good purposes because taken into the wrong hands, facial recognition and biometric verification technology can cause some controversy. It can protect our privacy as much as it can also potentially limit it. It adds extra security to your identity, but there is some worry that it may be used to track or identify citizens going throughout their daily lives.
Regardless, Alibaba has shown they are capable of creating revolutionary technology in a very short time frame. These developments in biometric verification seem to become exponentially more influential over time in their use cases.
The next few years will be a monumental eye-opener for how far we can push technology to truly enhance the experience of payments worldwide. Overall, the future of security will undoubtedly be some form of facial recognition technology, whether it’s scanning your whole face, or just measuring a quick smile, Alibaba is revolutionizing the entire industry of biometric verification.
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