Remember the good old, fraudulent days, when people used to sign for things? Then we realised that it was actually pretty easy to forge a signature and we all moved over to PIN numbers and passwords, before realising that they’re not exactly foolproof either.
Well now it’s time for a new form of secure payment, and it just wouldn’t be 2016 if it didn’t involve gratuitous vanity and duck face. So, lo and behold, Amazon wants us to take yet another selfie – this time to pay for the things we buy on their website.
The American E-commerce corporation has filed a patent to allow customers to pay for their goods with a selfie as recognition, to ensure that it was the actual customer purchasing items, and not a hacker or a family member using their device (so no purchasing things while logged in to your SO’s account).
Amazon has a patent with this incredibly artistic sketch.
Users would be required to blink and tilt their heads to indicate that they are a real living human being and not just a previously scanned photograph.
According to CNN, Amazon is experimenting with this new technology in hopes that it can not only reduce fraud but also create a better user experience:
“(It) can require the user to turn away from friends or co-workers when entering a password, which can be awkward or embarrassing in many situations.”
Right, ’cause turning away from friends and co-workers to pout for the camera is way less embarrassing.
This could potentially put a spanner in the works for employees who like to do some online shopping in the middle of their working day. Or better still, produce hilarious situations in which Sarah from Accounts looks around furtively before tilting her head to the left, blinking three times and then giving her webcam a big cheesy smile.
Cue: all the boys in her department thinking that flirty grin was intended for them and planning to ask her out…
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