More than half of UK consumers (54%) are willing to authorise payments using biometric technology, research from Experian shows. Accessing online accounts (64%) topped the list of services people are most willing to use biometric identification for.
43% of the 2,002 respondents would use biometrics to access emails, 41% to open retail accounts, 38% to gain pension access and 32% to log in to their social media accounts.
61% believe biometric identification is either just as secure or more secure than the current system of passwords for accessing and managing their accounts online. 40% would be happy using fingerprint scanning to log in to online accounts and 19% would be comfortable using retina scanning.
9% are willing to use camera facial recognition as a form of identification, while 5% would be happy using voice recognition technology to unlock their online accounts.
Overall, women are slightly less trusting of biometric technology, with 56% saying they believe it is just as secure or more secure than passwords, compared to 68% of men. However, 43% of the women respondents are comfortable with fingerprint scanning, compared to 37% of male respondents.
Key role
Surprisingly, younger users (18-34 year olds) are the most sceptical about retina scanning, with only 14% saying they would be comfortable using it. Retina scanning is most popular with the older generation, with 22% of over 55s in favour of using it.
“Recent innovations have really brought biometrics into everyday life and now the majority of UK adults are willing to accept it as a form of ID verification for accounts,” says Ian Cunningham, managing director of ID & fraud at Experian. “Biometric identification has the potential to play a very key role in enhancing the security that already exists when logging in and managing accounts.
“The next couple of years are when we should see the biggest boom which will lead to significant investment from all sectors where customer accounts are held.”
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