Google sounds out new tech to replace your passwords with noise

Google's sounding the death knell for traditional text-based passwords with plans to make big improvements to your online security.

Mountain View just snapped Israeli startup SlickLogin, developers of a technology that lets websites verify a user's identity using sound.

It works by playing a uniquely generated, high-frequency noise through your computer speakers, which is then picked up by a smartphone app and analysed.

A message is then sent back to the server to confirm the identity and authorise the login. It sounds like a lot of hassle but in fact you should be able to just lay your phone next to your computer and let it get on with it.

Slickly does it

"Today we're announcing that the SlickLogin team is joining Google, a company that shares our core beliefs that logging in should be easy instead of frustrating, and authentication should be effective without getting in the way," a SlickLogin's statement says.

"Google was the first company to offer two-step verification to everyone, for free - and they're working on some great ideas that will make the internet safer for everyone."

This technology could be used for a two-factor authentication method or to replace text-based passwords entirely.

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Via TechCrunch