YCD News – Amazon is quietly rolling out a fingerprint or face login feature, which is still in early testing and not yet fully adopted, according to TechCrunch. Amazon is one of the latest giants to adopt the feature, after Google and TikTok also announced the launch of such features.
Amazon has reportedly added a new description of the feature, known as “Passkey,” to its “Sign-in and Security” policy, which is designed to protect user accounts. Biometric identifiers, such as fingerprints or faces, make it more difficult for hackers to steal Amazon buyers’ accounts and access their information.
However, until they are widely used, users will still need to keep their account passwords.
According to the co-founder of German tech startup Corbado, the “Passkey” feature is not yet available on Amazon’s shopping app and apps such as PrimeVideo, which means that users will still need to log in to these devices with their passwords.
In addition, even if a user has set up “Passkey,” Amazon will still prompt for a one-time verification code when logging in if they have previously set up two-factor authentication (2FA). As a result, the “Passkey” feature is somewhat redundant at this stage.
TechCrunch reports that it has confirmed that the “Passkey” feature is currently only available in the US, UK, France and Germany, but it’s not clear if it’s already available to all Amazon users. It is also unclear whether the 2FA code requirement is a temporary feature and whether Amazon plans to add “Passkey” to its mobile apps.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on any of these issues, but said in a statement that Amazon is in the early stages of adding Passkey support to Amazon.com in order to provide customers with another secure way to access their accounts.
It’s worth noting that at the same time Amazon announced the Passkey feature, WhatsApp announced that it would roll out fingerprint or face login to all Android users. And just a few days ago, Google announced plans to make this feature one of the default login methods for all Google accounts. In addition, GitHub, Windows 11, TikTok, and 1Password have all rolled out support for such features.
The introduction of fingerprint or face sign-in will further protect the security of users’ account information and data, but may also make it more difficult for brands or advertisers to access users’ information, which in turn may affect advertising effectiveness. However, the exact impact on sellers and brands may need to wait for Amazon’s official announcement to be known.