Alipay, Huawei to introduce biometric security to mobile payments

Chinese online payment company Alipay has partnered with Huawei to use the fingerprint sensor in Huawei’s new Ascend Mate 7 smartphone, enabling a more secured way for users to make mobile purchases.

Customers using the new Huawei smartphone with an embedded fingerprint reader will be able to use Alipay’s Wallet app to execute mobile e-payments.

Huawei will integrate the biometric security technology from the soon-to-be-launched Mate 7 with the Alipay Wallet app, which already has more than 100 million users in China.

The biometric technology, which includes Huawei’s encryption and authentication, will allow Ascend Mate 7 users to pay for various goods and services by simply swiping a digit on their smartphone instead of entering a code or PIN.

As an added safety measure, Huawei is providing chip-level security for the Mate 7, which ensures that fingerprint data is saved and stored on the phone but is fully encrypted and cannot be compromised.

Therefore, only approved third-party applications, such as Alipay Wallet, will be able to access the fingerprint data to complete transactions.

Alipay recently announced that it has opened up its Wallet app to provide merchants and software developers with access to programming tools that will allow them to create online storefronts within the app.

The move is part of Alipay’s overall strategy to making the app a one-stop platform for online shopping and lifestyle services.

Article Topics

Alipay  |  authentication  |  biometrics  |  encryption  |  ewallet  |  fingerprint sensor  |  Huawei  |  mobile payment  |  security  |  smartphone