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Companies To Roll Out Selfie Authentication Technology Soon

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Tired of trying to remember your passwords? Well soon your face could replace them.

Cheryl Guerin, MasterCard Executive Vice President of Products and Solutions for North America, showed CBS News how it works.

"Hold this, take my picture and there it goes. I can do it again, that was quick," she demonstrated to Marlie Hall.

"I was going to say that was really quick," Hall responded.

Instead of typing in a password, the new MasterCard ID check lets you use a selfie to confirm purchases.

"The technology basically assigns a value to your face – the shape, the exact length of your nose, etcetera," Guerin explained.

The selfie is the latest in biometric authentication.

From the fingerprint reader on iPhones to an iris scanner available on some Microsoft phones.

CNET's Laura Hautala believes it's a growing trend.

"It's a little weird giving over your physical personal information to a business and it can feel a little invasive, but yes it can be a lot more secure. It's hard to fake biometric information," Hautala said.

The MasterCard selfie feature has users blink.

"It can't be somebody taking a picture of you and putting it in front of the phone to authenticate.  The blink lets us know that it's really you and it's happening right now," Guerin said.

Selfie pay will be available this summer and not just with MasterCard. Many banks will be providing MasterCard's technology to their online customers as well.

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