Google’s ‘Hands Free’ Payments System
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Google’s new ‘Hands Free’ payments system has, seemingly, been available as a pilot in McDonald’s, Papa Johns and other local businesses in various parts of California for a few weeks now.
It’s a hand free solution in that it lets users pay using, wait for it, ‘facial recognition’ (of course, being Google, it also double and triple checks that you are actually in the store using Bluetooth, a number of location services and other sensors.
Those who have actually seen the system describe the in-store cameras as looking like a “white Monopoly house on plastic stilts with a camera lodged in its roof”.
Once a user has downloaded the ‘Hands Free’ app, the consumer can tell the cashier in a participating store that they want to use the system. To make the payment, they only need to look into the camera. The Hands Free FAQ explains that Hands Free verifies your face against the profile photo you used to set it up and then verifies your mobile’s actual presence.
Google is pitching the function both as increased convenience and increased security. The convenience comes from speeding up in store payments. The increased security can be attributed to the fact that your credit card information never touches the point of sale device in the participating store.
Note that the Hands Free app is separate and distinct from Android Pay and is still only an experiment.
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