Google has implemented in its smartphones a new feature that allows you to access services and apps using your fingerprint
The day is approaching when we will no longer use passwords to access our social profiles, email addresses and applications on smartphones. Google is at the forefront of finding alternative and more secure solutions to the use of passwords and in these days has released a very useful feature: you can authenticate using your fingerprint.
For several years Google has been working on the security protocol FIDO2 that allows you to use alternative and more secure methods than the textual security key. We mentioned the fingerprint, but this is not the only solution Google is working on. The goal for the future is to use other biometric data, such as face recognition, a feature that is increasingly present within smartphones. The authentication systems that use the FIDO2 protocol are also more secure than the normal password: the biometric data are not sent to external servers, but are saved inside a chip of the smartphone.
How to use the fingerprint to access Google services
For the moment the functionality is still limited: to use it you need to authenticate yourself using your username and password. Once you've completed this first step, you'll just need to use your fingerprint to access some Google services. In fact, the feature is not yet active for all Google apps, but the Mountain View company has assured that in the coming months/years it will make it available for the entire Big G ecosystem.
To activate fingerprint authentication you need to access the "Password" section of your Google account and the system should automatically ask you to register your fingerprint scan. As mentioned above, we don't have to fear for our privacy: biometric data is saved on the smartphone and is not shared with external servers, which is what happens with passwords instead.