Duckface Selfie Set to Become the Approval of Online Transactions !!!

Until a couple of decades ago, photography was a costly affair practised only by those who can afford…… there were famous names such as – Agfa, Kodak, Konica – which all sold film rolls.  People  returning from a foreign trip used to gift film rolls of 24 or 36 to friends and relatives. There were some manual cameras where you had to manualluwondeverytime a photo was taken and some automatic – more importantly, people were  unsure of the results and one had to wait with bated breath after giving the roll for developing  – expecting some good items captured do turn out well !
Film rolls and camers found a watery grave with the advent of digital cameras, now threatened by smart phones.  People are clicking everywhere and mostly of thyself – ‘selfies’ – on FB a nauseating photo of a person carrying a dead person, taking a selfie is doing rounds !
By some accounts, it is stated that  British public take 14.5 million selfies a day - but only 4.3million of them are posted online, suggesting they're not all quite up to the standard of celebs like Kim Kardashian.The information comes from a study by Carphone Warehouse which shows that the now selfie-obsessed British public take 5.25billion of them every year.   With social media sites like Instagram and Twitter giving us easy access to the pictures glamorous celebrities take of themselves, it seems more than two thirds of selfies don't make it to social media.Queen of selfie-  Kim Kardashian has nearly 39million followers on Instagram and the photos she posts of herself can dominate headlines all around the world. More than half of British adults admit to touching up their hair and make-up like selfie Queen Kim Kardashian, pictured, before pressing the button on the camera. A third even admit to digitally editing the image before posting it.  Former Manchester United and England star David Beckham has more than 7million followers on Instagram and posted this selfie while on holiday.  Karen Danczuk, the wife of MP Simon Danczuk, became an instant star after posting photos of herself in revealing clothing online. She has now split from her husband is a different news. Surprisingly, it's the 25-34 age group which take the most selfies - rather than a younger generation - which generally posts 10 a month.  The trend is spreading to the older generation too, with a fifth of over 55s posting selfies and one in ten taking more than six a month….but this one reported in MailOnline is different - Duckface [a type of selfie face] reportedly now is accepted in outlets everywhere! MailOnline report suggests that - Mastercard are trialing a new way to verify payments - via selfie. The card company is testing the new way to pay which involves the customer being asked to look at the screen and blink to confirm their identity and authenticate a payment. Five hundred people are taking part in the trial which MasterCard chief product security officer Ajay Bhalla says is targeted at youth.   Customers will be able to use the selfie method or a fingerprint with which to authorise a payment. The company is also looking at voice and heartbeat recognition as an alternative.  He told Americans.org that they are working with all mobile phone manufacturers to create the new biometric security method, part of a number of alternatives to PIN numbers being looked at. According to Bhalla, the new generation is into selfies, their embracing would mean seamless integration of  biometrics into the overall payment experience.'Customers will be able to use the selfie method or a fingerprint with which to authorise a payment. The company is also looking at voice and heartbeat recognition as an alternative. However, the problem with these new ways to pay is that they're not as easily revoked as a PIN number, should a fraudster somehow manage to get hold of your details.  Google tried using facial recognition to unlock phones but people quickly realised you could just present a photo of that person in front of the camera to bypass the system. However, there are concerns that if a criminal could somehow manage to clone any of the actions required for the new methods, it would be difficult to stop this continuing without disabling the new method altogether. Ken Munro, security researcher at Pen Test Partners, told the BBC: 'What happens if your facial recognition data gets stolen? You can't change your face.' The blink test, rather than a simple selfie, is designed to stop hackers from being able to authorise payments with a simple photograph.- - ~ and the company says that photos won't be sent directly to the company in case people are sensitive about privacy. Instead, it will be converted into a different format that will be used to authenticate the payment. Interesting ! With regards – S. Sampathkumar
7^th July 2015.