When Apple, Google, Microsoft Came Together To Try Making Passwords History

Apple Inc AAPL, Alphabet Inc’s GOOGL GOOG Google, and Microsoft Corporation MSFT came together to support password-free logins, it was reported in May 2022.

What Happened: The big-tech trio supported a new sign-in standard by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium, according to company statements issued at the time.

FIDO said the technology allowed users to sign in through simple verification such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or a device PIN.

Kurt Knight, Apple’s senior director of platform product marketing, said working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods was “central to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience.”

“We look forward to making FIDO-based technology available across Chrome, ChromeOS, Android and other platforms, and encourage app and website developers to adopt it," Google’s senior director of product management, Mark Risher, said.

“The complete shift to a passwordless world will begin with consumers making it a natural part of their lives,” said Alex Simons, corporate vice president, identity program management at Microsoft.

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Why It Matters: The open industry association said the new approach would protect users against phishing, and sign-in will be radically more secure.

The new capabilities were expected on Apple, Google, and Microsoft platforms over 2023, FIDO said, adding that users will be able to automatically access their sign-in credentials on multiple devices without having to re-enroll each account. 

They will also be able to use FIDO authentication on their mobile device to sign in to an app or website on a nearby device, regardless of the platform or operating system.

This story was originally published on May 5, 2022.

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