Customer Experience

By adaptive - April 15th, 2014

With the news headlines once again filled with online security threats this time focusing on password use, is the trend for more social login use safe and secure?

With headlines screaming change all of your passwords now! since the news broke regarding a Heartbleed bug in the OpenSSL security protocol, one of the sites to admit it had issues was Mumsnet that warned its 1.5 million users that their passwords could have been compromised.

In a statement, co-founder Justine Roberts said: “We have no way of knowing which or how many accounts were affected but have advised users to change passwords on other sites particularly if they use the same password on Mumsnet as elsewhere.”

Passwords continue to be a stress point for many users. One way that has been used to elevate the tension of managing multiple passwords has been to offer social login. And according to a plethora of research, social login is highly popular and also effective. For instance, according to Janrain 92% of shoppers have abandoned a website rather than recover lost login information. Two-thirds of consumers are aware of social login with more than half of those surveyed having tried this.

Says Paul Abel, Ph.D., Managing Partner, Blue Research: "Social login appears well suited to address common challenges organizations face. Despite social login's recent introduction, most online consumers are encountering it and, among those who do, the majority are using it. These findings suggest social login is an effective way for organizations to better understand and target consumers in a way in which consumers find beneficial."

For social media networks the fallout from the Heartbleed security flaw has been mixed. Twitter stated: “We were able to determine that twitter.com and api.twitter.com servers were not affected by this vulnerability.” With Facebook commenting: “We added protections for Facebook’s implementation of OpenSSL before this issue was publicly disclosed, and we’re continuing to monitor the situation closely.”

A handy list of sites that advises which passwords to change is available on Mashable, and clearly indicates that social media sites were vulnerable to attack, and so therefore, were users’ passwords. This is highly important, as more consumers turn to social login as a way to combat password fatigue.

However, the Heartbleed debacle does raise the question of how safe it is to use social login, as in effect, consumers would be using the same password for multiple site – something that is always stated as a cardinal since of Internet security. Ultimately it boils down to how trustworthy consumers feel their social media networks are, and if they are comfortable using that information for other logins.

Social login is a considered an attractive alternative that is gaining a strong foothold. Research has indicated that the majority of active online consumers want social login to be offered and 3 in 5 of them say they prefer social login over a guest or a new account. Despite its recent introduction, nearly 8 in 10 have come across this technology and more than half of online UK consumers report using social login.

Developing, maintaining and communicating that trust is a core customer priority for all corporations. The use of social login is an expanding trend, but so is an awareness of privacy issues when using social media networks and their associated commercial site.

TRUSTe state: “The potential impact of the concern over business privacy practices is significant as consumer trust is falling. Just over half of US Internet users (55%, down from 57% in 2013) say they trust businesses with their personal information online. Furthermore, 89% say they avoid companies they do not trust to protect their privacy. Also 70% said they felt more confident that they knew how to manage their privacy than one year ago, but this can cause consumers to take actions, which negatively impact businesses.”

For corporations looking for mechanisms that offer a smooth customer journey from first contact to conversion, social login is highly attractive. However, with privacy and security issues once again front of mind with many consumers, engagement for trust is vital to ensure that journey is safe. Social media can offer a first point of contact where impressions are forged and relationships built. It’s up to brands via these networks to instil the high levels of trust that are needed to ensure long-lasting commercial relationships are built, and where social login becomes the default login method.