The Google’s news trust based system or ‘Trust API’ is a part of larger ‘Project Abacus’ which Google engineers have been working on and was recently unveiled at I/O 2016. Google is said to be tying up with large banks to test out the Trust API. The system is designed to be used on smartphones, and works by constantly checking for a number of personal indicators which can grant access to accounts or the phone itself. According to Google, instead of asking for a password, the phone might analyse your face, your voice, how you type, how you swipe, how you move and where you are. All of these bits of data are fed into the Trust API. This API will then generate a ‘trust score’ which will act as user password. The idea is to make devices more secure. Someone could easily steal a password, but it would be much harder for them to mimic the unique way someone else uses their phone. Google believes a login system based on a combination of these factors could be 10 times more secure than a fingerprint scan. Google will be starting testing the Trust API in coming months and a beta launch should be announced shortly. Google’s Dan Kaufman says it should be available to every Android developer by the end of the year if all goes well.
