Will we make payments using our image?

It is more than possible, and in fact it is something that millions of people in China are already doing.

In China, online payments are dominated by two companies Alipay and WeChat Pay, both of which have been implementing facial recognition to accept payments for some time.

When a person has to make a payment online, he stands in front of a camera and checking his image, the payment is made from his personal bank account to the entity with which he has made the purchase. In a simple, fast and free of any contact, payment is made in a few seconds.

The issue of user privacy remains to be resolved. Something that in China the authorities abuse their power, but that in the western world is something that worries us a lot. Our privacy is a right that we want to preserve.

In Los Angeles (California) there is a company called PopID that offers this technology with the guarantee of the privacy of its users. The image of the users is stored in a vector manner on the company’s computer and is not shared with anyone.

When a user registers in the PopID system, he sends his photo (a selfie) and his bank account to be related. He doesn’t have to do anything else.

When a company registers in the PopID system, it must have an image capture system to capture the photos of its customers.

When paying, the customer stands in front of the camera, the system sends the information to PopID, it checks that the user is the right one, and transfers the payment. All in a few seconds.

With which customers can make payments without having to carry a credit card or mobile.

The PopID company ensures the privacy of users’ information because it does not share it with anyone, and this recognition system is safer (that’s what they say) than the one obtained by typing a code.

I like the system for its convenience for the user, to buy it is not necessary to carry anything (no credit card, no mobile phone, no …) and because for the store that charges the investment it is quite small (an image capture system).

The system in China is very widespread and expanding rapidly, and in the USA it is just starting, but everything indicates that it could be a success.

It remains to confirm the security of users’ photos in the sense that they are not shared with anyone, and if privacy is guaranteed the system can be quickly accepted everywhere.

We will see how quickly this system is implemented. Time will tell.