Only 14% of consumers regularly authenticate with biometrics
Industry must focus on privacy and user experience improvements
New consumer research found just 14% of people frequently use biometric authentication to log-in to a digital service, website or account. This is despite consumers believing biometrics make the process of online authentication faster, more secure and easier to use than passwords.
In the recent survey, conducted by Opinium Research and commissioned by Nomidio, more than half (57%) believed biometrics would make online authentication faster, while 54% and 53% said it would make online log-ins easier and more secure.
When asked about their top concerns with biometric authentication, the number one issue was the risk biometrics would fall into the wrong hands, cited by a third of respondents. Next, consumers said they were worried their behavioural data, showing a picture of where they had logged-in, would be sold by the identity provider (29%).
Ben Todd, Head of Worldwide Sales commented: “Consumers are switched on, the loss of biometric identifiers and the risk an identity provider might sell or mine behavioural data are very real. At Nomidio we use advanced, nation-state level encryption to tackle these issues head on. We couldn’t sell your data even if we wanted to, because it is so well encrypted even we can’t see it. Only our users can decrypt their data.”
71% of users confirmed that needing to download multiple apps in order to authenticate with biometrics would deter them, a key message for biometric firms. Today, few biometric services offer cloud-based solutions, meaning users require an app to validate their identity and that the user’s identity is therefore tied to a single device. To authenticate with different businesses consumers typically need multiple apps.
Philip Black, Commercial Director at Nomidio said of the research: “Biometric authentication is still emerging and if we want consumers and employees to make the step-up, we must deliver solutions that provide a ‘Netflix style’ user experience. If I can’t log-in because my biometric ID is tied to my phone and it’s lost, stolen or out of battery, I might just stick with a password.”
Nomidio OpenID, newly available on Amazon Web Services, offers browser-based biometric authentication for businesses and consumers alike, meaning users can move between devices like a phone, tablet and laptop seamlessly, using their biometric identity with ease. Biometric matching takes place in the cloud, where the user’s identity is securely held, removing the need for multiple apps whilst delivering a digital identity that can be used across any device.
About the research
The research was carried out by Opinium on behalf of Nomidio during August 2020 using an online survey methodology. 1,000 consumers from the UK were surveyed.