How does Very compare to fingerprint scans?
Fingerprint scans are a convenient, yet imperfect, biometric authentication method. Here’s how they stack up compared to Very’s palm scans.
Very vs. Fingerprints
While fingerprint scans might seem like an easy, unique biometric to verify real people, they have their limitations. Here’s how it compares to Very.
Read the litepaperWhere fingerprints fail
Swab: palm Palms are more secure
We constantly use our fingers, and our fingerprints are more vulnerable to real-life lifting. It’s a lot easier to leave a full fingerprint somewhere, as opposed to a full palm print.
Population
8,000,000,000
- Very, dual palm
- no one
- Very, single palm(1)
- 800 people
- Face ID
- 8,000 people
- Fingerprint
- 160,000 people
Fingerprint accuracy and performance is highly variable due to the sensor itself
A 2018 study with a leading commercial matcher found same-sensor error rates ranged from 0.01% to 12.87%, depending on which device was used.(2)
Why Very works
- Phone enrolled here
- Home Laptop same login
- Work Laptop same login
One palm, every device, nothing to re-enroll
Very is tied to a person, not a device.
Although palms are scanned and converted to a Palm Model on the user’s smartphone, the actual model is linked and matched to a Very account, which can be accessed across devices. Fingerprint scans are trapped in specific hardware and algorithms.
Very and Fingerprint side by side
| Features | Very | Fingerprint |
|---|---|---|
| Accuracy | HighVery can uniquely verify the Earth’s population | MediumFingerprints cannot distinguish between everyone |
| Scalability | HighCan be used with most modern smartphones | LowNeed hardware uncommon on modern smartphones |
| Security | HighPalm scans require a full print, which are rare | MediumFingerprints can be easily lifted from everyday devices |
| Privacy | HighPalms are not easily accessible in a database | LowFingerprints are stored in databases like law enforcement |
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Palm verification with Very has a False Acceptance Rate (also known as FAR, which tells how often it will return a false positive rating) of up to 1 in 10,000,000. For comparison, the most commonly cited FAR for fingerprints is for Apple’s Touch ID, which had a FAR of 1 in 50,000.
Yes! Very’s palm verification only requires a smartphone with a VGA camera and runs on at least Android 6 or iOS 13. This covers 85% of smartphones worldwide.
Palm prints are much more secure and private than fingerprints. Fingerprints are small, easy to lift, and appear everywhere. Any determined threat actor can find one, even from pressing an elevator button or using a public tablet. Additionally, if a user has had an interaction with law enforcement, their fingerprints are already in a database.
A full palm print is much harder to lift from surfaces; you are much more likely to leave a partial print at any given time. There is also no worldwide database of palm or hand images that exist for easy spoofing.
Very accounts are based on a user’s biometrics, not a device. A user can use Very from any device, so long as they verify their palm.
Integrating Very into your stack is simple with support from the Very team, and can take only a few lines of code, depending on your integration model. Once you receive your credentials, integration can take 10 minutes or less (integrating User Verification with OAuth using the separate Very app) up to a few weeks (a more integrated, customized solution specific to your platform’s needs using the Very SDK).
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