Incode’s “Consumer Pulse on Biometrics” Report | Incode

Incode’s “Consumer Pulse on Biometrics” Report

Date: May 10, 2023

Study uncovers need for digital, privacy-centric identity verification and authentication solutions to improve the customer experience and create user trust

Executive Summary

Incode, a pioneer in biometrics technology and a leading business provider of digital identity and authentication solutions, gauged user sentiment toward digital authentication and the use of consumer-facing digital identity apps and services. Incode’s research took the pulse of consumers across the globe, exploring popular conceptions about biometrics, how people engage with digital authentication, and barriers to adoption.

Incode surveyed 1000 consumers ages 25+ in English-speaking countries (across North America, the UK, and Asia Pacific) about the perceived benefits and concerns with digital authentication applications and services including biometrics.

This non-weighted inaugural survey kicks off a year-over-year tracking study, “Consumer Pulse on Biometrics” to get insights on opinions, attitudes, and preferences with digital authentication technologies.

Overall, the findings reveal that while consumers can identify specific benefits of using digital identity verification for payments, self-check-ins, venue entry, and account onboarding, they are not fully committed. The majority of those surveyed (57%) said they are apt to re-engage with brands and companies that offer these digital authentication methods for identification. But when it comes to using their apps and services, there is still a high degree of hesitancy to embrace digital identification and those concerns are based on fraud protections, privacy and security. Consumers expressed distrust that companies will actually protect their individual privacy when using biometrics.

Even as many companies announce plans to shift their consumer-facing apps and services to “passwordless”, consumer adoption of biometrics has not rounded the curve. This underscores the need for solutions that put user privacy first.

Key Research Findings

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Online Payments

Does Digital Authentication Improve the Customer Experience for Online Payments?

To what extent do you agree that using digital authentication methods (such as biometrics) to pay for things online increases your customer experience?

Given these percentages, customer experience is improving with biometrics for online payments, with 54% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that digital authentication improves the customer experience for online payments.

Fraud Protection

Does Digital Authentication Protect You from Online Payments Fraud?

To what extent do you agree that using digital authentication methods to pay for things online better protects you from online fraud than passwords?

While the majority of respondents (62% combined agree or strongly agree) that using digital authentication methods to pay for things online better protects from online fraud than passwords, 38% are still not convinced.

Simplified Logging In

Does Digital Authentication Simplify Log In?

To what extent do you agree that using digital authentication methods to simplify the logging in and onboarding process improves your customer experience?

With a combined 58% of respondents either agreeing or strongly agreeing, consumer experiences improve when using digital authentication for logging in and onboarding.

BENEFITS OF BIOMETRICS

Main Benefits of Biometrics

In your opinion, what are the main benefits of using digital authentication methods, such as biometrics?

Almost half of the respondents (47%) indicate that “not having to remember a password” was the top benefit of using digital authentication/biometrics.

DRIVING CONSUMER ADOPTION

Key Industries for Biometrics

Across which of the following use cases would you like to see digital authentication methods used more?

IMPEDIMENTS TO ADOPTION

What’s Holding Consumers Back from Using Biometrics

What are your main concerns about using digital authentication methods, such as biometrics?

TRUST & PRIVACY

Trusting Biometrics in the online world

To what extent do you agree with the following statement: “digital authentication helps to create trust in the online world.”

Not surprisingly, three quarters (74%) of survey respondents would be unlikely to use a service with a poor reputation regarding protecting users’ privacy.

ANALYSIS

As technology advances, companies will be able to offer better, safer digital authentication and identification services and products that put trust at the core while delivering excellent user experience, speed, and ease of use. However, consumer perception won’t change overnight. For consumers to fully embrace digital authentication technologies that replace passwords, concerns about privacy, fraud, speed, safety and ease of use must be addressed.