Consumers open to password alternatives on Internet: Accenture

Consumers globally, including those in India and China, consider usernames and passwords cumbersome and are interested in alternatives like biometric technologies to protect personal information on the Internet, a study by consulting firm Accenture today said.

According to the report, respondents from China (92 per cent) and India (84 per cent) are most likely to be open to alternatives like fingerprint recognition and two-step device verification.

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More than 78 per cent respondents each in Brazil, Mexico and Sweden and 74 per cent in the US said they are willing to consider security methods other than usernames and passwords.

The report, titled 'Digital Trust in the IoT Era', is based on a survey of 24,000 consumers across 24 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, the UK and the US.

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Though Accenture didn't specify the number of respondents from each country, it said the "sample size in each country was proportional to the online population".

India has the world's second largest online population after China with over 300 million Internet users. The report said 60 per cent of consumers found usernames and passwords cumbersome and more than three-fourths (77 per cent) said they were interested in using alternatives to protect their security on the Internet.

"The widespread practice of typing usernames and passwords to log on to the Internet might soon become obsolete. Consumers are increasingly frustrated with these traditional methods because they are becoming less reliable for protecting their personal data such as email addresses, mobile phone numbers and purchasing history," Accenture MD Internet and Social business segment Robin Murdoch said.

The report found less than half (46 per cent) respondents saying they are confident in the security of their personal data.

As hackers use more-sophisticated and less-obvious methods, passwords are no longer seen as the definitive answers to the security question, Murdoch said.

"Traditional one-step passwords are now being matched with alternative methods using biometric technologies such as fingerprint recognition and two-step device verification. Within the next few years, we are likely to see many more consumers embracing these and other alternative methods," Murdoch added.

Consumers in emerging countries are slightly more confident in the security of their personal data than those in emerging countries, at 50 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively.

"In developed and emerging countries, consumer wariness about data privacy and digital trust is intensifying as the exploding Internet of Things market generates unprecedented amounts of consumer data on more devices," Murdoch said.

Source: PTI