Will You Be Paying for That With Cash or Selfie?

Ok, that blinking thing is a little creepy. JL

Eric Johnson reports in re/code:

(Mastercard) will soon be testing a mobile app that would have users pay for online goods by taking a selfie, according to CNN. The app recognizes your face, but transactions won’t go through until you blink, so that thieves can’t fool the app by just holding up a picture of you.
Apple and Google may be trying to convince users to pay for things with their phones and watches — but MasterCard’s more interested in your face.
The credit and debit card company will soon be testing a mobile app that would have users pay for online goods by taking a selfie, according to CNN. The app recognizes your face, but transactions won’t go through until you blink, so that thieves can’t fool the app by just holding up a picture of you.
“Passwords are a pain,” MasterCard’s chief product security officer Ajay Bhalla told CNN. “People write it, and they get really surprised when a hacker gets into websites and knows the passwords to all their accounts.”
The report claims the app can also read one’s fingerprint via your phone’s camera, although it’s unclear how reliable or secure that would be compared to dedicated fingerprint-scanning hardware like Apple’s Touch ID. And both forms of input would be transmitted in some form over the Web, which will inevitably leave some security concerns dangling.
Or, then there’s this get-around:

Per Thorsheim @thorsheim

Do a selfie of a friend. Print it. Cut out the eyes. Hold the print in front of your face & blink. Does it authenticate to Mastercard? Win.