Chinese mobile payments service Alipay now has biometric security

Alipay and Huawei have jointly launched a biometric security service for m-payments. Users of a new Huawei smartphone equipped with a fingerprint reader will be able to make mobile payments without passwords using Alipay’s Wallet app. Biometric security technology built into Huawei’s feature smartphone, the Ascend Mate 7, will be integrated with the Alipay Wallet mobile payment app. The biometric technology, including encryption and authentication managed by Huawei, will allow mobile users to confirm payments for goods and services with their smartphones, by swiping a digit instead of entering a lengthy code.

As Chinese internet giants are fighting to own people on mobile payment, Alibaba has announced a way to make its payments service Alipay even more secure on a smartphone — with the introduction of fingerprinting technology in a deal that it inked with smartphone manufacturer Huawei. Alipay Wallet, the e-payment app relaunched last year to handle online-to-offline payments, will be integrated into Huawei’s soon-to-be-launched smartphone, the Mate 7, which boasts biometric security technology. Other than a fingerprint reader, the technology includes encryption and authentication managed by Huawei. This means that instead of entering passwords and codes, all that users have to do now is swipe a digit to confirm payments for a variety of goods and services. In a bid to reassure those concerned that even fingerprint readers can be hacked, Alipay notes that Huawei is providing what is known as “chip-level security” for the Mate 7, which means fingerprint data is saved and stored on the phone — but it is encrypted and can’t be accessed. Huawei is also going to use “high-level” encryption and verification to make sure only approved third-party apps like Alipay Wallet can access the fingerprint information for transactions.