Alibaba and phone maker Huawei announced that the etail giant’s Alipay Wallet service will use the fingerprint scanner in Huawei’s upcoming Ascend Mate 7 handset.
Users will now be able to do away with passwords and instead using their fingerprint as a means to confirm their identity and finalise payments.
Alipay says the deal will provide "a way to fast-track biometric payment technology in China", which is fast becoming the world’s largest mobile commerce market.
Alipay Wallet is currently the most popular mobile payments service in China, with over 100m subscribed users. Its parent company, Alibaba, is preparing for a highly-awaited IPO which could be worth around $250bn, making it one of the largest deals in history.
The Ascend Mate 7 is yet to receive a release date, but could well see the light of day, along with the new payments system, during the IFA show in Berlin this week.
The phone will also include top chip-level security from Huawei, meaning that although fingerprint data will be saved and stored on the phone, the data will be encrypted and cannot be accessed by outsiders.
The device will also include high-level encryption and verification to ensure only approved third-party applications, such as Alipay Wallet, are allowed to access the fingerprint information for transactions.
Any future expansion of the scheme to the UK may well prove popular, as a recent survey by Intelligent Environments found that eight out of ten Brits are ready to opt for biometric security measures such as fingerprint scanners in place of passwords.
