Samsung Galaxy S5 Release Date Coming: Device Will Be The First Smartphone To Support PayPal Payments Using A Fingerprint

Users of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s (KRX:005935) Galaxy S5, which is scheduled to release on April 11, will be able to use their handsets to make PayPal payments using a fingerprint.

According to a report from MIT Technology Review, the upcoming flagship smartphone from the South Korean technology giant will be the first smartphone to use fingerprint identification to authorize PayPal payments. Galaxy S5 users, when on a website or app that accepts Paypal, will be allowed to make a payment by swiping a finger across the phone’s home button, the report said.

“Today people are having to type in nine-digit passwords everywhere, including one-handed on the subway,” MIT Technology Review quoted Joel Yarbrough, senior director of global product solutions at PayPal, as saying. “Building a smart biometric experience solves both usability and dramatically increases the security level.”

The Galaxy S5’s payment system is the first commercial deployment of a new authorization protocol developed by the FIDO Alliance, which has been co-founded by technology companies including BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Lenovo Group Limited (HKG:0992), MasterCard Inc. (NYSE:MA), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and PayPal.

To use the Galaxy S5’s fingerprint scanner for payments, users will have to register the identity of the device, based on its cryptographic chip and link their fingerprints to a PayPal account.

According to PayPal, Samsung is not the only company looking at fingerprint readers as other smartphone manufacturers also are investing resources into the technology. Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 5s currently supports making payments using its TouchID fingerprint scanner, but users can use this service only on the company’s own iTunes store.