Instead of asking for a password, the phone will analyse your face, your voice, how you type, how you swipe, how you move and where you are. PHOTO: REUTERS
In an impressive, and interesting, leap on its innovation scale, Google is ready to test a new login method which will replace passwords with a 'trust-based' system that monitors the way you typically use your phone. If it comes through, this will be a land mark achievement in privacy protection measures.
The system is designed to be used on smartphones, and works by constantly checking for a number of personal indicators which can grant access to accounts or the phone itself.
What could be worse than a password that is ‘password’?
Instead of asking for a password, the phone will analyse your face, your voice, how you type, how you swipe, how you move and where you are. The system will register all this detail which then generates a 'trust score' that indicates how likely it is that it's actually you carrying the phone.
The idea is to make devices more secure. Someone could easily steal a password, but it would be much harder for them to mimic the unique way someone else uses their phone. Google believes a login system based on a combination of these factors could be 10 times more secure than a fingerprint scan.
Password hacks as simple as 1-2-3-4-5-6
The 'Trust API', part of 'Project Abacus', was unveiled at Google's I/O developer conference, and is set to be tested by a number of large financial institutions in June, the Guardian reports.
The testing phase will begin soon, but Google's head of Advanced Technology and Projects group, Dan Kaufman, said it should be available to every Android developer by the end of the year if all goes well - meaning the days of having to remember multiple passwords for different accounts and devices might soon be over.
This article originally appeared on The Independent.
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