PayPal Testing Face Verification

The mobile payments app is reportedly testing face-verification for its mobile payment transactions. There’s a tab labeled “Local,” that allows users to find nearby stores that accept PayPal payments – as well as check into venues online that thereafter displays their name and photo in the PayPal app. Store owners can use the app to pay for things, and cashiers can use profile photos to check the identity of the customer. Though PayPal is marketing this as a more “personalized” shopping experience, some are worried about the privacy implications of such a “Minority Report” like system. Useful or overstepping bounds? We’ll have to wait and see what backlash, if any, results.