Facial recognition is becoming more and more common and today it is used in many security systems, along with other biometric methods, such as fingerprints or voice recognition.
More secure with facial recognition – how it works
Facial recognition combined with, for example, an ID-document check, enhances security in a number of ways. The technology identifies you based on a comparison with an image or video by comparing selected facial features. There are different ways to do this, which we will explain further below.
Facial recognition in BankID
With facial recognition in the BankID app, we compare a photo of you with a photo from an approved Swedish ID document issued by the police; passport or national ID card. This can be used, for example, to activate a new BankID. Passports and national ID cards issued by the police have a chip which a mobile with an NFC reader can read information from. When you tap you ID document with your phone, a check is executed confirming that it is a valid ID document and belonging to the same person as the one who holds the BankID in use. Driving licences don’t work since they have no chip.
A technology on the move
In recent years, facial recognition has undergone rapid development and is constantly being improved. We've developed a feature that can be used as an additional verification if you've previously saved the photo from your ID document. By enabling facial recognition you can often skip an electronic scanning of your ID document. With this feature you should only need to tap your passport or national ID card once and then save the photo for biometric comparison. It will be easier, faster and provides a better user experience.
Straightforward and optional to use
If you already have a digital ID card in the BankID app we can use the same photo for facial recognition. Otherwise, we'll use the original photo from the passport or national ID card you scan when you activate the feature. The feature is voluntary to activate and you can withdraw your consent at any time, read more in our privacy policy.
FaceID
Some phones have a built-in facial recognition feature called FaceID. When signing a contract or identifying yourself, you can choose to use the BankID app instead of a security code . This is a feature available on iPhone that creates a 3D image of your face by projecting thousands of infrared dots onto your face. Later, this 3D image is compared with your face to see if they match. BankID supports FaceID to identify customers and signatures, but this requires your bank to have enabled the feature. Another biometric method, TouchID, uses fingerprints and is available for both iPhone and Android.
Secure and more accessible
Using facial recognition and fingerprints is more secure than typing your code in a public environment. No one can look over your shoulder and see your code if you are using your face or fingerprint as a code instead. These features are also a good way to help people who, for whatever reason, find it difficult to enter a code on their phone.
