Biometric Authentication in M-Payments : Analysing and improving end-users’ acceptability

Sammanfattning: Traditional authentication methods like Personal Identification Number (PIN) are getting obsolete and insecure for electronic-payments while mobile-payments are becoming more and more popular. Biometrics such as fingerprint and face recognition authentication methods seem to be a solution to this security issue as they are becoming a regular and integrated part of an average smartphone end-users purchase. However, for mobile-payments to be authenticated by biometrics, end-users acceptability of both technologies must be high. In this research, fingerprint and face recognition authentication methods are being tested with end-users and their current acceptability level is being determined based on interviews which are conducted upon finishing each testing scenario. The interview is using 39 questions which are determining previous usage of the technologies, their likeability, positives, negatives, and feelings about various features biometrics provide such as ease-of-use, stress-free method of payment, security, and many others. Additionally, one more authentication method is tested, namely two factor authentication consisting of one biometric method (fingerprint) and one traditional method (PIN) of authentication. The main goal for testing this method is to find out whether implementing (as currently it is not available) such technology into mobile-payments would be beneficial and how it scored in user-acceptance next to fingerprint and face recognition authentication methods. Once the user-acceptance level is determined the main reasons for it are presented. Last but not least, suggestions for improvements in this domain are presented so that biometrics are even more accepted by end-users who are performing mobile-payments on their smartphones.