Data Brief: 76 Pct Of Millennials ‘Very Satisfied’ With Selfie Authentication

PYMNTS’ June 2021 study, Selfie ID: Consumers and the Use of Facial Biometrics to Secure Digital Commerce, a collaboration with Onfido, surveyed nearly 2,600 U.S. consumers in Q2 2021 on their feelings about using smartphone selfies to identify themselves, as well as the level of awareness around the added security that selfie-based ID solutions deliver.

Key findings include this: 40 of consumers are “very concerned about the security of their nonbank digital accounts where they make transactions, and “large shares of consumers are most concerned” about accounts in online gaming or gambling (45 percent), marketplace or sharing economies (44 percent), social media (42 percent) and eCommerce (41 percent).

That concern explains a willingness to put extra effort into authentication — if it means they can worry less about fraud. “The majority of consumers say they are willing to invest more time in the verification process when opening a broad range of account types,” per the study, adding that 60 percent of baby boomers and seniors, and roughly half of millennials and bridge millennials (50 percent and 51 percent, respectively), are okay with spending more time verifying.

In regard to the smartphone selfie ID method, 37 percent of consumers overall are “very willing to verify their identities using a photo ID and a selfie if it improved their data security, and 35 percent say they would be very willing to do so if it meant better fraud protection.”

Also striking is that 84 percent of millennials and 83 percent of bridge millennials said they are very willing to use a selfie ID “if their providers required it.”

Satisfaction with the selfie method explains the enthusiasm around its use, as more consumers are encountering selfie IDs in signing up for digital financial services in particular.

According to Selfie ID: Consumers and the Use of Facial Biometrics to Secure Digital Commerce, 76 percent of millennials and 70 percent of bridge millennials are “very satisfied with the selfie identification method, and these age groups also use selfie-based ID the most.”