14 DAY TRIAL // PayPal has officially announced the support of passkeys, as the company wants to increase the security of user accounts and therefore provide customers with a more secure method of logging in.
Stepping away from passwords is something that many tech companies are trying to do these days, and as a founding member of the FIDO Alliance, PayPal is obviously one of the big names investing in this direction.
Numbers cited by PayPal show that 81 percent of the 2.6 billion hacked records in 2017 were powered by password stealing and guessing. As a result, replacing passwords with a more secure way to log in is essential, especially given PayPal offers financial services.
“Passkeys will also help more consumers complete their purchases with PayPal - once PayPal users create a passkey, they won't have to remember their password, allowing them to check out with greater ease. According to a recent survey of U.S. consumers, 44% of consumers have abandoned an online purchase because they forgot a password.,” PayPal explains in an announcement today.
The passkey option will first go live on iPhone, iPad, and Mac on PayPal.com, but the parent company says it’s already working on expanding the feature to more platforms.
“Once existing customers log in to PayPal with a browser on desktop or mobile web using their existing PayPal credentials such as a username and password, they will have the option to "Create a passkey." Customers will then be prompted to authenticate with Apple Face ID or Touch ID. Then the passkey will be automatically created, and next time PayPal customers log in, they won't need to use or manage a password again,” PayPal explains.
Users in the United States are getting PayPal passkeys today, but the company says that it plans to bring the update to more regions in early 2023.