Over 50% Indians concerned with risk of security breach of biometric information: Visa survey

Moneycontrol News

Digital payments firm Visa announced that a survey conducted on Indians, exploring their awareness and perceptions of biometric authentication confirms that while consumers continue to have a strong interest in new biometric technologies, almost 51 percent are concerned with the risks associated with security breach of sensitive biometric information.

According to the Visa study conducted on 500 Indians by AYTM Market Research, only 48 percent perceive biometric authentication for payments as more secure than passwords/PINs and 46 percent consumers have a peace of mind of their payment protection.

This comes at a time when there are data security related concerns have been raised about Aadhaar.

However, it points out that 99 percent are personally interested in using at least one biometric method to verify their identity, and 99 percent are interested in using at least one biometric method to make payments.

Highlights of the survey:

• 32 percent have used fingerprint recognition once or twice and another 63 percent use it regularly. By comparison, about 48 percent have used voice recognition in the past and 26 percent use it regularly.


• The top benefits associated with using biometric authentication for payments are the perception that it is more secure than passwords/PINs (48 percent) and that it gives consumers peace of mind that their payment is protected (46 percent).


• Indian consumers overwhelmingly perceive that biometrics are faster (81%) and easier (84 percent) than passwords.


• And 51 percent are concerned both about the risk of a security breach of sensitive biometric information.

• More than the 65 percent of consumers are already familiar with biometrics.


• 86 percent of consumers are interested in using biometrics to verify identity or to make payments


• 70 percent of consumers believe that biometrics are easier and 46 percent think they are more secure than using passwords or PINs.

It added that higher income consumers are more interested than lower income consumers in facial recognition. Younger consumers (36 and under) are more interested than older consumers in vein pattern recognition. Findings from the survey illustrate consumers’ desire to see the implementation of biometric tools in payment authentication processes.

TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, Visa, India & South Asia, Visa,  said, “The payments ecosystem is witnessing a rapid change in adoption of new form factors of payments and modes of authentication. For financial institutions, the time has never been better to integrate biometric technology into banking apps and payments experiences for customers.”

Today smartphones have advanced features increasing the accuracy and speed of biometrics, such that they can be used for financial transactions. “Indian consumers too have discovered the ease of biometric authentication and are open to using this technology for transactions going forward, which augurs well for the Indian payments industry,” he added.