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Google Aims to Ditch Passwords

We all hate them, but they are necessary. Passwords, that is. Passwords mean that our phones are secure, our emails are hard to tap into, and our bank accounts are safe. Or are they? Increasingly, we have seen that the standard password (and even those that are meant to be complex) isn’t entirely secure.

That’s why Google is trying to get rid of the password as we know it.

Other Secure Ideas

What would replace the password? Things like swiping patterns, facial recognition, and maybe even the way that your body moves. Biometrics are huge and Google wants to use more of them. Next month, Google will begin testing various biometric applications with the hopes of shredding passwords for good.

Right now, some Android phones already come with facial recognition options instead of alphanumeric or even swipe options. But Google has stated (and others have agreed) that facial recognition is not as secure as fingerprint recognition - but, wait, there is still some debate as to whether or not fingerprint recognition is even secure at all.

The Race for Security

We live in a time where nothing is really secure. Government databases are hacked into, phones are continuously cracked into, and nothing really seems to work where passwords are concerned. So it makes sense that Google would focus on biometrics - because what can be more secure than a device that learns to recognize the way that your body moves or the way that your face looks?

After all, we are all individuals so our bodies and faces and patterns move and look different - even to a phone. With biometric password capabilities always running in the background, a phone (or any other device) could easily learn how we breathe and move throughout the day, so that when it comes to determining whether or not we are who we say we are lying to a device would be tough.

The James Bond of It

My mind is drawn to old James Bond films when things like biometrics start to pop up with companies like Google that are catering to the general public. Not so much that spies might have been using this technology for years, but more like - what happens when someone cuts off someone’s finger or just learns to type or swipe like someone else (Google mentioned typing patterns and swiping patterns as a form of password testing too)?

Hopefully you aren’t someone that’s keeping the kinds of secrets someone else would want to steal so badly they’d cut your fingers off, but when we come to the point of security that’s not as easy as cracking a password, one has to wonder how hackers will steal information in the future. Google will be testing out these other methods of security in the coming months, so stay tuned for that.

Where is security going and how secure is your phone right now? If you want to check out what something like face recognition feels like, you can always download an app that aims to do just that.