FIDO Alliance recently announced its fourth annual Online Authentication Barometer – a global consumer survey that reveals the trends, habits and adoption of authentication technology. The survey gathers insights from over 10k consumers in ten countries globally: UK, France, Germany, US, Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, India and China.
Key findings
The research revealed promising consumer momentum building around passkey adoption and clear signs people are recognising the limitations of passwords and are choosing passwordless alternatives, like passkeys, where available. In the two years since passkeys were first announced, global awareness has jumped by 50%, rising from 39% familiar in 2022 to 57% in 2024. Awareness is driving adoption too – the majority of those familiar with passkeys (62%) are using them to secure their apps and online accounts.
The data also revealed the cost to organisations still relying on legacy password sign-ins – especially among younger generations. 42% abandoned a purchase in the last month due to a forgotten password, rising to over half of those under 35. Similarly, over half of consumers (56%) have given up accessing a service online because they couldn’t remember a password in the last month, rising to 66% of those under 35.
The survey revealed other clear sign that password usage and trust are stagnating globally as more secure and user-friendly passwordless alternatives become available. Overall, the number of times consumers enter a password manually daily decreased again from 2023, while biometrics ranked the authentication method consumers consider the best login experience and the method they consider most secure for the second year running.
When consumers were asked about how they have improved account security in the last year, numbers continued to decline among those who increased the complexity of a password, while those choosing biometrics and using authenticator apps have steadily risen.
Passkeys at two: the road to mainstream
“Consumer expectations are changing, and this data should serve as a clear call to action for brands and organisations still relying on outdated password systems. Consumers are actively seeking out and prefer passwordless alternatives when available, and brands that fail to adapt are losing patience, money, and loyalty – especially among younger generations.
When consumers know about passkeys, they use them. Excitingly, 20% of the world’s top 100 websites and services already support passkeys. As the industry accelerates its efforts toward education and making deployment as simple as possible, we urge more brands to work with us to make passkeys available for consumers. The pace of passkey deployment and usage is set to accelerate even more in the next twelve months, and we are eager to help brands and consumers alike make the shift,” comments Andrew Shikiar, CEO at FIDO Alliance.
Notably, passkeys have seen strong adoption in high-growth, digitally advanced markets like China and India, which ranked top globally with 80% and 73% enablement, respectively. The UK followed close behind in third place, with adoption levels at 66%.
Younger consumers most attuned to online scams and AI threats
Consumer concerns about online security were also revealed to be high – and again, it is younger consumers most attuned to new threats.
Over half of consumers (53%) cited an increase in the number of suspicious messages they noticed in recent months, driven mostly by SMS (53%) and email (49%). Similarly, 51% detected an increase in the sophistication of threats and scam messages, likely driven by AI-enhanced attacks. Zooming in on demographic data suggests older generations are at greatest risk: 54% and 61% of 18-24 and 25-34-year-olds respectively noticed scams getting smarter, while just a third of 55-64-year-olds and 25% of 65+ said the same. Similarly, 20% of people over 55 said they were unsure about the impact AI has on their online security.
