Put away your credit cards — soon you might be paying with your face 

Biometrics such as facial recognition are continuing to gain traction for identity verification. Facial recognition uses artificial intelligence (more specifically, computer vision) to match features in a person’s face to a known picture, ultimately confirming or rejecting a match.  

One of the most visible applications of facial recognition is at airport security checkpoints, where the Transportation Security Administration has incorporated it into its Credential Authentication Technology to provide a robust framework for validating travelers’ identity. This application is being met with concern by some lawmakers, as they attempt to slow its use at airports due to privacy risks, even with the many benefits that it offers today and well into the future.   

As facial recognition technology continues to advance in its accuracy and reliability, the footprint of applications will continue to grow. Any time a person must validate his or her identity, facial recognition is an obvious solution. 

In-person retail purchasing certainly comes to mind. When entering a store, consumers can take their items to check-out kiosks, where the items are automatically scanned, with the total cost receipt texted to their phone. All interactions are touchless, performed in near real time. The final payment is validated using facial recognition, matching the customer to their credit or debit card.   

Does this sound too good to be true? Hardly. A robust facial recognition system linked to financial accounts can make in-person retail purchasing easier, more efficient and safer. 

From a brick and mortar retailer’s perspective, facial recognition may reduce inventory leakage due to shoplifting or employee theft. Why is this the case? Shoppers who do not register for facial recognition payment must be checked out manually. This effectively shines a bright light on such shoppers, allowing store security to focus their attention on them rather than facial recognition registered shoppers, akin to risk-based security used by the TSA. 

Shoppers would need to enroll in a facial recognition payment program, to which retailers could opt in. This is not very different from consumers applying for and having credit or debit cards, with retailers accepting these cards for purchases. The key difference is that the unique identifier for consumers is no longer a credit or debit card number, a chip on a card or a pin, but rather their face. 

The convenience of using your face to pay for purchases is obvious. But what are the risks? 

For the consumer, can someone come along and use your face to make purchases? Such risks are no different from someone using your credit card number to make unauthorized purchases. In fact, a credit card number can easily be compromised during a security breach, which may give bad actors access to your credit information. 

There is no analogous security breach with facial recognition. Even if a bad actor accesses your facial data, executing a purchase in person would be nearly impossible. It might be possible to use your picture to create fake photos with you in them, but to make retail purchases in person would be exceedingly difficult.

Biometric purchases using facial recognition are beginning to gain some traction. The restaurant CaliExpress by Flippy, a fully automated fast-food restaurant, is an early adopter. Whole Food stores offer pay-by-palm, an alternative biometric to facial recognition. Given that they are already using biometrics, facial recognition is likely to be available in their stores at some point in the future. 

So what can consumers expect? More retailers, restaurants and venues will begin to use the technology. Just as credit and debit cards have overtaken cash as the dominant means to make purchases, biometrics like facial recognition could eventually become the dominant way to make purchases. 

There will however be actual costs during such a transition, which will largely (in the short term) be absorbed by consumers in higher prices. The technology software and hardware required to implement such systems will be costly, pushing it out of reach for many small- and medium-size businesses. However, as facial recognition systems become more efficient and reliable, and losses from theft are reduced, an equilibrium will be achieved that will make such additional costs more modest and manageable to absorb. 

Other outlets that are ripe targets to use facial recognition payment systems include sports stadiums and arenas, entertainment venues and museums, to name just a few. The enhanced throughput during peak busy periods would be a major benefit.  

Though there are certain to be hiccups as the footprint of retailers and venues using facial recognition grows, the future of retail payments may no longer reside in your wallets or on your smart phone. It may be your face. 

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.