Earlier this week Google launched a new way to securely login to your Google Account on public computers using QR codes and your smartphone. Simply visit accounts.google.com/sesame on the public computer where a QR code will be generated. Using your smartphone, scan the QR code. If you are already signed into your Google account on your phone, scanning the QR code will confirm that the user is in fact you. If you are not already signed in, you will be asked for your login details on your smartphone. In doing so, you have avoided typing in your password on a potentially insecure computer. Unfortunately, Google has concluded this experiment offering the following statement:
Hi there – thanks for your interest in our phone-based login experiment.
While we have concluded this particular experiment, we constantly experiment with new and more secure authentication mechanisms.
Stay tuned for something even better!
Dirk Balfanz, Google Security Team.
As security and privacy concerns continue to be among the greatest issues for Internet users, we expect to see more and more features like this QR Code login. Stay tuned for more updates!
