Mask removal isn’t always convenient in public! – The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Device Usage and User Authentication

BSTRACT The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has impacted our everyday lives and demands everyone to take countermeasures such as wearing masks or disinfecting their hands. However, while previous work suggests that these countermeasures may profoundly impact biometric authentication, an investigation of the actual impact is still missing. Hence, in this work, we present our findings from an online survey (n=334) on experienced changes in device usage and failures of authentication. Our results show significant changes in personal and shared device usage, as well as a significant increase in experienced failures when comparing the present situation to before the Covid-19 pandemic. From our qualitative analysis of participants’ responses, we derive potential reasons for these changes in device usage and increases in authentication failures. Our findings suggest that making authentication contactless is only one of the aspects relevant to encounter the novel challenges caused by the pandemic.