52 percent of consumers want biometrics over passwords

Companies are adopting secure, modern password alternatives, such as the following: social-network authentication that enables consumers to use their Facebook or other social-network credentials as their logins, two-factor authentication and biometric authentication, such as fingerprint scanning, voice recognition, facial recognition or iris scanning technology.

According to the survey, 52% of respondents prefer to log into online accounts using modern authentication methods, including 29% that prefer using two-factor authentication and 20% that prefer biometric authentication.

Only 16% of respondents follow password best practices with a unique password for each online account. 6% use the same password for all accounts and 63% use seven or fewer passwords across all their online accounts. 18% of consumers who expressed a preference believe biometric authentication is more secure than traditional usernames and passwords.

Security risk is a top factor driving consumers identity authentication preferences since 26% of respondents have had an online account compromised in the past 12 months. For millennials, that security-breach number jumps to 35%, most likely because survey data shows they have the worst habits for creating traditional passwords.

Almost one-half of millennial respondents use one or more forms of biometric authentication, such as fingerprint scanning technology (38%), voice recognition (15%), facial recognition (11%) or iris scanning (5%).

This survey was conducted by OnePoll.com in February 2016. It queried 2,000 US adults and 2,000 UK adults aged between 18 and 69 that access the internet and have online accounts. The results have been used in the ‘Businesses Should Begin Preparing for the Death of the Password’ white paper by Gigya.