Online payments giant PayPal is expanding access to passkey logins for Android users in the U.S., but they must be accessing the site from the Chrome browser . The company first introduced the feature late last year for Apple computers and tablets running macOS Ventura and iPadOS16, respectively. Google had yet to offer stable passkey support for Android and Chrome at the time, but PayPal has promised to bring the feature to other platforms and countries in the future.
Passkeys were officially released on Chrome in December of last year. So now, PayPal can deliver on its promise, with some limitations. The sign-in option isn’t yet available on the app , and users can only enable it if they’re using Chrome on a device running Android 9.
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Passkey is a relatively new authentication system that will likely replace traditional passwords in the future. Efforts towards a secure password-free future have been underway for the past few years, but have only recently begun to bear fruit.
Passkeys allow users to access websites and services without typing usernames and passwords .While it can use biometric authentication to verify a user's identity, this method is not exactly the same as current login technology that automatically fills in login boxes using facial recognition or fingerprints. The technology creates a cryptographic key pair (one public and one private) that is associated with a user's account. Apps and services that support passkeys use the public key to verify a person's identity by matching it with the private key, which is stored on the user's device.
US users (those who meet the requirements listed above) can enable passkeys for PayPal on Android by browser Chrome. They will then be presented with the option to “create a passkey” and asked to verify their identity using their biometrics or their phone’s passcode.
See also: 1Password will launch Passkeys!
Once they complete the setup, they will no longer need to type in usernames and passwords to check out PayPal purchases in Chrome.
It's worth noting that using the passkey on PayPal will not remove the password from the account, as users will still need it to log in on unsupported devices. (e.g. the feature is not yet available on Windows or the Android app).'
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Many argue that passkeys provide stronger security , as they are resistant to phishing. Also, since one key of the pair is kept on the user's device , users ' login information will not be compromised in the event of a data breach of a service.
Source: www.engadget.com
