12.27.16: Your morning briefing

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

Welcome to the new PaymentsSource Morning Briefing, delivered daily. The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web:

Facial food recognition: Some companies are using facial recognition to determine how consumers want to pay for an order; search giant Baidu and KFC China are instead using the technology to recognize what they want to order. The companies are using software to examine each customer's age, gender and facial expression to guess what best to feed them, according to TechCrunch. Even if the system guesses wrong, it will remember customers on later visits and base its suggestions on their past orders, the article said. It did not mention whether the system, which is being tested in a single KFC China restaurant, remembers payment details; however, similar technology from Mastercard uses "selfies" as part of the authentication process, so it's certainly possible to rely on facial recognition for the full transaction.

Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

The one true two-factor authentication: A second factor of authentication can take many forms — most commonly a keyfob or a phone app — but is any two-factor method better than another? According to Google, the best two-factor dongle may be a secure USB drive, reports Ars Technica. In a two-year study of 50,000 Google employees, researchers determined that the USB keys based on the Universal Second Factor standard performed bets, the article said. This standard, which is also used by Dropbox and Github, has several advantages over other methods, the article says; unlike a smartphone app, a USB stick isn't as easily compromised by malware, and a USB stick can use a computer's existing ports rather than a standalone reader.

The growing cloud: Amazon Web Services is poised to get a big boost from small devices. The service is vital to the global retailer, which gets 10 percent of its revenue and more than 100 percent of its operating income from A.W.S., The New York Times reported. These figures dwarf Amazon's retail businesses, the article said, giving Amazon motivation to make its technology a staple of mobile and Internet of Things development.

From the Web (powered by Wiser)

Bluetooth Beacons And Potential Payment Fraud Problems
SAP Blogs • Andre Smith
Earlier this month, Judy Cubiss warned us of the potential risks many industries face due to digitization. Online payment fraud was one of the problems touched on in the article. Due to the fact EMV

Can PayPal Fend Off The Competition?
Seeking Alpha • Sniper Fund
Summary The secular shift from cash to electronic payments will continue. PayPal has a strong competitive position. Operating margins will be stable and may increase modestly. PayPal (PYPL) is the leading global digital wallet and a leader in mobile and e-commerce payments....

In China, people are playing ‘Pokemon Go’ with money
Tech in Asia • Steven Millward
It’s a free game that gives you money for nothing – so it’s little wonder that so many people in China are giving it a try this week on their phones. The game looks a lot like Pokemon Go, with a cartoony...

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