The Biometric Authentication Generation Gap

Fraud may be on the rise, but the number of consumers using biometric authentication methods has not risen with it.

Fewer than 10% of consumers use these methods, PYMNTS’ research has found, with customer preferences for accessing digital accounts closely tied to survey respondents’ ages.

In particular, older users, baby boomers and other seniors are more likely to prefer username and password authentication, while Gen Z and millennial users show the least interest in manual authentication for both mobile apps (12% for Gen Z and 19% for millennials) and web browsers (25% for both groups).

Consumers who do use biometric methods say they’re easy to use, and 44% of digital account users said ease of use was their chief reason for preferring a method of authentication, including those who prefer PINs and biometric authentication for mobile app and browser-based logins.

Just three authentication methods feature significantly different patterns: two step authentication, mobile device code authentication (mobile app users only) and personal questions with pre-specified answers (browser users only). Smaller portions of respondents who favor these methods point to ease of use, while a majority say account security and preventing theft is their key motivation for using these methods.

Our research also shows biometric authentication methods earn appreciation for their ease of use:

• 51% of mobile users and 52% of browser users say ease of use was the main reason they prefer fingerprint scans.
• 49% of app and browser users who use face scans say ease of use is their main reason for using that method.
• Gen Z mobile app users are more than twice as likely to prefer face scans (12% compared to 5%).

The Too Many Passwords Problem

Why do so many consumers value easy logins? Among other reasons, they’re juggling too many account and passwords. Nearly half of the digital account holders we surveyed pointed to too many passwords as a top pain point when accessing accounts (46%), followed by the sheer number of accounts (38%) and rules preventing them from reusing passwords (33%).

To learn more about the perception versus use gap in authentication, and to discover ways businesses can boost usage, download your copy of Authenticating Identities In The Digital Economy, a collaboration between PYMNTS and Mitek.