A British start-up company is offering a way for identifying customers to users. It starts by taking a selfie on the ShowUp app. A friend or family member proves the image of the person is correct, which is then securely stored on file as the reference photo. Then, when a person logs into their online account, they take another ShowUp selfie while reading out a randomly generated phrase displayed on the screen. This is to ensure the selfie is unique to that moment, and that the camera is pointing at a live person and not at a photo.
Using crowdsourcing, other ShowUp users are asked to judge whether the new selfie matches the one stored on file. If they agree that it does, access to the account is granted. If it’s an impostor, a mismatch is detected and they are caught in the act.
Jeremy Newman, founder and executive director at ShowUp says: “ShowUp exploits the fact that for the first time nearly everyone has a camera connected to the internet. We work on the principle that organisations don’t know people, people know people. Therefore instead of relying on passwords or any other data to verify identity, we can now draw upon the natural ability of people to recognise one another. With mobiles, ShowUp and social collaboration, ordinary people become the source of true identity, rather than being the victims of outdated and flawed practices forced upon them by organisations.”
Visit: http://showup.global. For a video on the product visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wX2JEqVk7U&feature=youtu.be.
