Today Square formally rolled out two products. For merchants, the company offers Square Register, an application and small card reader simplifies retail checkout in a way that integrates sales tracking, and customer communication. It is designed to foreclose on offers from the makers of Point of Sale Terminals, like Verifone, who are in the process of convincing their customers to convert to NFC (near field communications) based systems. The second product, Card Case, is designed for anyone who normally carries a wallet with credit or debit cards as payment vehicles. As Jack Dorsey, Square CEO (and one of Twitter’s founders) explained at a press conference, it transforms an iOS or Android-based device into a repository for multiple, virtual payment cards, making them into the “companion” to each Square Register.

The way it works, according to NYTimes Miller, is as follows:

When it comes time to pay, the shopper opens the Square Card Case app, which looks like a brown leather wallet full of cards for stores nearby. The shopper clicks to open a tab at a store and then gives the merchant his or her name. The shopper’s credit card number is already stored with Square, and the merchant sees a list of shoppers who have recently opened tabs nearby and chooses the person’s name. Merchants see a big photo of the Square user so they can confirm it is the same person.

Thus, Card Case enables customers to make payments by simply giving their names as in, “Charge it to Dan Miller” Voice biometrics followers will recognize right away that there is a dream like quality to such an idea. Presumably, the individual would have had to enroll in the system and provide a sufficient amount of usable utterances to support real-time ID proofing. Instead, Square’s Card Case uses a couple of factors, “something you have”-in the form of the physical Card Case (a brown leather thing); something you are – in the form of a large photo displayed in the Card Case; and finally your location, in that merchants using Square Register are presented with a list of nearby Card Cases along with the names of their owners, acceptance is a matter of choosing the right name from the list. For purchases of over $50, shoppers will also have to enter “something you know” in the form of a PIN.

To date, Square had already shipped 500,000 card readers for iOS and Android phones. The merchant services are up and running in San Francisco; New York; Washington, DC; St. Louis; and Los Angeles. Square’s revenue model is to take a 2.75% transaction fee for swiped credit cards or 3.5% + 15 for credit card numbers entered manually.

Targeting the growing ranks of iPhone and iPad users, PerSay has announced that its VocalPassword functionality has been modified to allow app developers to include voice authentication with “minimal resources.” By adding voice biometrics to traditional methods of authentication, including login IDs and passwords, the new capability enables a multi-factor authentication.

The additional layer of security can provide app users with a “sleek and innovate authentication experience,” says Almog Aley-Raz, CEO of PerSay in the press release. The company is touting the solution for applications such as mobile banking, social networks, payment services and membership clubs.

PerSay is not alone in developing a voice biometric solution for iPhone. VoiceSafe, created by Voice Trust, is an application to securely store personal information on an iPhone. As well, Palo Alto, CA-based SecuriMobile offers a platform to manage large deployments of voice biometric-enabled mobile phones with support for BlackBerry, iPhone, Android smartphones.

Admittedly, there has to be a lot going on under the hood where service providers are sorting out the pros, cons and interdependencies of OAuth (for authentication), SAML (the Security Access Mark-up Language), OpenID (authentication), XRDS, Information Cards, CardSpace and other manner of generic and branded “ID federation”. Orange has distilled the alphabet soup into a “tool” which looks a lot like a Web site or landing page. It invites people to use their “Orange France Identity” or to select another “trusted” combo to apply as they surf secure Web services.

The idea is spelled out further in this video (in French with English subtitles). It centers around a site called Quizagain.com, so I’m not sure whether Orange has the unenviable task ahead of it of recruiting participating sites into its “single-sign on” efforts. Even though it will face significant challenges growing the base of participants, it’s nice to see such a clean interface and simple approach to a known problem.

Webcast On-Demand

Web-based search, commerce, and entertainment — coupled with the human urge to “go mobile”– is making our activity more virtual. In this always-on world, unwanted access to personal data stores is leaving transaction streams vulnerable to fraud. Join Opus Research and TradeHarbor for a discussion of how the two pillars of “something you know” (a PIN or Password) and “something you have” (a physical token, PC, or cellphone) can be easily augmented with unique aspects of “something you are,” in this case your voiceprint.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 — 1 p.m. EDT / 10 a.m. PDT
Sign Up Below!

Web-based search, commerce, and entertainment — coupled with the human urge to “go mobile”– is making our activity more virtual. In this always-on world, unwanted access to personal data stores is leaving transaction streams vulnerable to fraud. Join Opus Research and TradeHarbor for a discussion of how the two pillars of “something you know” (a PIN or Password) and “something you have” (a physical token, PC, or cellphone) can be easily augmented with unique aspects of “something you are,” in this case your voiceprint.

In anticipation of the event, we invite you to join the LinkedIn group: “Voice Biometrics Conference Buzz.” We encourage members to share experiences, questions and observations surrounding the use of voice biometric technologies for speaker identification and verification across a variety of point applications – including password reset, access control, voice signatures, payment authorizations, customer care, law enforcement, and more.

And be sure to join your peers in healthcare, banking, financial services, insurance, telecom and various government agencies for Voice Biometrics Conference (May 4-5) – the only global event designed specifically to answer the burning questions surrounding implementation and adoption of authentication and identification applications that employ voice biometrics.

Register Now!

When making room reservations at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, be sure to mention the Group # “G-Opus” to receive a special room rate of $189. (The VBC group rate will apply until April 23, 2010 and is subject to availability.)

For NTT docomo, OpenID solved a very specific problem. All of its wireless subscribers were automatically issued an “imodeID” which enabled them to gain access to the communications, entertainment and information services that docomo provides to its wireless subscribers. But i-mode only works on docomo’s wireless handsets, not desktop PCs. For authentication on fixed line devices, the company issued a separate “docomoID”. Use of OpenID, enables subscribers to sign on to multiple services across multiple devices.

The list of large network operators and service providers deploying a flavor of OpenID authentiction is impressive. It includes AOL, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, MySpace, Orange and PayPal, among others. The addition of NTT docomo introduces OpenID into a country where wireless commerce has been highly successful thanks, in a large part, to the simplicity of access and the availability of multiple services. Earlier this year, 22 companies including NTT docomo, KDDI, Sony and NEC formed an “ID Platform Federation Forum” to test different ways to simplify user access across multiple carriers and services “based largely on OpenID.” The formal launch of OpenID-based authentication by NTT docomo moves the technology beyond the experimental stage.

Anticipation is building for the upcoming Voice Biometrics Conference (May 4-5, 2010). Register Now to take advantage of the early-bird rate of $599. (Save $200, ends March 5th!)

The excitement for the event is spurred by an often-heard phrase regarding voice biometric deployments: “It’s on our roadmap for 2010.” Both for “internal” and customer-facing applications, executives are investigating and implementing voice biometric-based solutions not just for fraud-loss reduction, but also to improve the customer experience and raise confidence that a company is taking every measure to protect the public from identity theft.

With voice biometrics quickly morphing from competitive differentiator to competitive necessity, you cannot afford to miss Voice Biometrics Conference 2010 — the venue where corporate decision-makers join technology providers and integrators to hash out the realities of today’s voice biometrics solutions both in the lab and in the real world. Every major technology provider in the space will be present.

Hear panel discussions about opportunities in customer care, mobile payments, data security, and multifactor authentication, and see presentations from the banking and healthcare sector on launching customer-facing deployments. Additionally, hear how a North American law enforcement agency has deployed one of the largest known speaker identification projects to fight crime.

Sign-up now to attend this global gathering (May 4-5, Hyatt Regency Jersey City) and take advantage of the early-bird rate ending this week.

In an effort to prevent such fraud, Sandata Technologies, a technology provider of home healthcare solutions, has partnered with PerSay adding voice biometrics to enhance its current suite of time-and-attendance product capabilities. According to the announcement, the addition of PerSay’s VocalPassword to Sandata’s product suite, “enables Santrax customers to validate the identity of field employees using a precise biometric based multi-factor authentication process, whether they utilize a landline or mobile telephone.”

Sandata reports that customers are expressing interest in voice verification technology providing “a simple, accurate and effective way to ensure that our home health aides are at work,” said Marki Flannery, with President of Partners in Care based in New York City.

Aimed at “delivering enhanced customer experience and security,” the public deployment comes after NAB ran a successful internal pilot involving 2,000 branch staff in May. The voice biometrics-based service is part of a multi-million dollar effort to upgrade a range of new security functions available to NAB personal banking customers.

According to a company statement, “With identity theft related fraud increasingly moving to the phone channel, the use of voice biometrics enables the effective identification, authentication and verification of customers, offering an extra layer of protection,” said Warren Shaw, executive general manager with NAB Personal Banking.

Successful authentication pilot programs have long been rumored for financial services organizations, but NAB’s official launch marks the first bank – both in Australia and globally – to go public with a large-scale, customer-facing service. More to come…