PayPal And Samsung Team For Galaxy S5 Fingerprint Scanner Payment Authentication

PayPal and Samsung have announced that they have teamed up to allow owners of the new Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone to authenticate payments using their smartphone. Specifically, the user of the S5 will be able to authenticate payments using the fingerprint scanner integrated into the smartphone.

The collaboration between PayPal and Samsung will make the S5 owners out there the first users that can shop at any merchant where PayPal is accepted and login using only the fingerprint scanner. No username or password will be needed.

PayPal says that it provides a secure wallet in the cloud and doesn't store any personal information on the user device. The user will be able to scan a finger to pay on the S5 since the smartphone is FIDO Ready with software that securely communicates between the fingerprint scanner on the device and the PayPal service in the cloud.

The only data shared between the fingerprint sensor on the device and the PayPal service in the cloud is a unique encrypted key allowing PayPal to verify the customer without the need to store biometric into on the PayPal server. PayPal says that the fingerprint authentication service will launch in April and will be offered in 26 markets globally. The Galaxy S5 launched this week at MWC 2014 and we have already spent hands on time with the smartphone if you want more details on the device.