Build 2016: Windows Hello biometric security extending to Edge browser

Michael Cottuli

For anyone who follows Microsoft, Build is one of the biggest events of the year. The conference serves as a time for developers and consumers alike to get together and listen as Microsoft tells us all of the plans for the future. With HoloLens about to break ground in consumer technology and Microsoft Surface ready to move into its next stages, Build 2016 is shaping up to be an extremely significant event.

At the beginning of the conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stepped on stage to speak about the symbiosis between people and the technology that drives us.  He spoke about how this conversation has become “mainstream,” and noted that we are now at a pivotal point where we decide how we are going to use technology to bring us all together. Claiming that he is “an optimist,” Nadella noted that he believes that technology is most certainly ready to drive economic growth, and also spoke about Microsoft’s mission to “empower every person.”

Later in the conference, Bryan Roper came on stage to demo some of the things coming in the new Anniversary Update. One of the first things that he showed off is something that could very well be revolutionizing the way that security could be handled for websites in the near future: The extension of Windows Hello biometric technology into Microsoft Edge. This was shown off on the home page of USAA, where Bryan used the fingerprint scanner on his laptop in order to log into his USAA account. This new extension of biometric technology into Microsoft Edge, assuming it’s adopted by other security-oriented websites, could prove to add a much more reliable layer of security to the website accounts that we need to protect.