Using Security To Create A More Inclusive Payments Ecosystem

For all the customization in the digital-first economy, the actual technology that powers it is pretty much “one size fits all” when it comes to validating consumers.

That’s a problem because in the wake of the great digital shift of 2020, every consumer increasingly needs to be validated, and every consumer isn’t the same. In fact, in many cases, they aren’t even that similar. For every consumer who purchases a new iPhone once a year to stay on the bleeding edge of mobile technology, there’s another still squeezing the life out of an iPhone 4 or rocking a flip phone. And while most customers use their phones with two functioning hands and working eyes and ears, there are millions who don’t because they can’t, and for whom validation schemes that seem easy and straightforward quickly fail.

In short, internet technology isn’t very inclusive. The trouble in data security specifically, NuData DevOps Director Justin Fox told PYMNTS, is that developers are far more keyed into that MIT cohort and far less likely to consider the existence of the flip phone owner. That creates a situation in which an awful lot of people are left behind in the digital world, unable to transact as easily as others because the tools weren’t designed with them in mind. The elderly, low-income consumers, people with disabilities — these are the groups that access technology differently and are often left behind by digital security tools.

“It’s important for us all to remember that while many thrive in this high-tech lifestyle, many also struggle, and those struggles are areas where things like ageism and ableism often come into play,” Fox said. “Inclusion is something really important to keep top of mind as we maintain awareness and recognize that sometimes some technology is not always well aligned to solve every issue in society.”

Creating New Approaches

NuData is a Mastercard-owned security and user validation company that runs in the background of an app or browser platform while consumers interact online or on mobile. It builds online profiles based on how users behave during those interactions. The easiest way to design inclusively, Fox said, is to step outside one’s own perspective when designing features. For a simple example, as a single, able-bodied and healthy adult, Fox almost never has to think about how to use a phone one-handed. Older adults, or people missing limbs or fingers, on the other hand, have that consideration on their minds all the time.

That kind of more expansive point of view when one is in the design process, Fox said, means coming up with products that work for groups that have a tendency to be excluded from innovative development.

“When we move to design for people with permanent disabilities, we can really actually have an improved user experience for everyone,” Fox said.

But designing inclusively also means designing inventively and accepting a reality that there are going to be users who need authentication who are going to be using a flip phone and not a top-of-the-line iPhone with a biometric fingerprint sensor or facial scanner in it — or they may be in an area with no Wi-Fi. It’s harder, Fox said, but NuData has learned that even with something as simple as a flip phone, there is still data to be looked at and evaluated that can be used to secure a transaction without asking for other step-ups, like one-time codes, that can create a barrier for some folks.

That’s because NuData’s inclusiveness efforts are built on the back of its layered approach to leveraging data to provide security.

The Layered Approach

What the consumer wants at base, no matter who they are or how they choose to navigate the digital space, Fox said, is to be able to finish the interaction they set out to do as quickly and easily as possible. To enable that, NuData relies on four interconnected data layers to guarantee that interaction is safe — and should be allowed. That four-layer approach looks at the device data, the behavior analytics to see if the user is using their device normally, and their passive biometrics which studies how the customer interacts with their device physically. The fourth layer is what Fox called the “trust consortium” that can aggregate additional data into the system.

That layered approach, Fox said, is increasingly what a digital future is demanding, particularly as more users of diverse backgrounds and capability levels are flooding online. Normal is never going to return in quite the way we all remember it — we’ve all come too far down the digital path to reverse course now.

But that’s not bad news, Fox said; it’s good news to be celebrated — particularly if NuData can build an environment that is trust-rich for every participant who wants it, and not the select few armed at the start with the right tools and training.

“There is no real normal per se,” Fox said. “Everybody has their own version of normal. With two-thirds of the world’s population online today and more coming online, it’s just really important that we keep that front of mind. So, for 2021, I know on my roadmap, it’s really important that we make sure that folks can come online, and when they do, they’re protected and secure, requiring as little friction as possible to validate their identity.”