
Yahoo is making a risky step forward, if we can even put it that way. The online giant is planning to continue its career by removing passwords from users’ emails. This new approach is at the verge of innovative and dangerous, especially since passwords have been around for a good number of decades. The two issues that Yahoo might have to face are convincing users that they need this, then educate them on the matter.
Our grandparents, parents and current generation have grown accustomed to passwords. It seems as though there is no other way to secure your email. But Yahoo has already released a new app, Android and iOS specific, that require you to activate a “push notification” rather than just type in your password over and over again. It sounds nice when you first think about it, but it may bring about some unpleasant consequences.
Instead of training your typing and memory skills, the new “Yahoo Account Key” will give you a notification, which you will need to confirm by pushing the appointed space on your screen. Nice and easy, not giving you anything to worry about, the Account Key is an ideal tool for anybody who is running around with multiple mails for different purposes.
Yahoo’s senior vice president, Dylan Casey, explained that “Account Key streamlines the sign-in process with a secure, elegant and easy-to-use interface” bringing along a fresh online environment for online users. Yahoo wants to maintain its former users and attract new ones with a new, accessible look. The only question that remains is if the look will be enough?
In a previous report, a Yahoo representative explained that this change has occurred mainly because the old mail-password system had become quite difficult and it did not serve to protect emails as well as it used to. This statement makes us wonder what kind of world we are living in if making an email address and creating a password are now considered difficult.
Still, our main concern is that this new app makes emails very “smartphone-centered”. If you haven’t been looking at the bigger picture until now, every new technological breakthrough ties individuals to a certain gadget, whether it may be a computer, a tablet or a phone. These gadgets become very important, but what if they fall into the wrong hands?
Yahoo is making a risky step forward, one that encourages burglars to get out of their houses more often and see what info they can get with a stolen phone. And this is not something to look forward to.
Photo Credits lookout.com