While two-factor authentication is a very handy tool for regaining access to your accounts if you get locked out or forget your password, sometimes getting a text message or an email isn’t possible. That’s why Facebook has confirmed it’s looking into using facial recognition as a way to verify a user’s identity.
Facebook wants you to stare deeply into your phone screen — not so it can slap some silly Instagram filter over a selfie, but so it can use facial-recognition technology to unlock your account.
The social media and advertising mega-company is testing this new tech as a way to verify identities of users who have been locked out of their accounts and can’t, for whatever reason, use a more traditional two-factor authentication system.
The Next Web’s Matt Navara shared a screenshot of the feature on Twitter:
Facebook subsequently confirmed the test to TechCrunch, saying “We are testing a new feature for people who want to quickly and easily verify account ownership during the account recovery process.”
The feature is optional and would only be available on devices you’ve used to access Facebook in the past.
“It is another step, alongside two-factor authentication via SMS, that were taking to make sure account owners can confirm their identity,” Facebook’s statement reads.
Before it rolls out the facial recognition feature more widely, Facebook likely wants to make sure hackers — or evil twins — can’t get around it.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist