Surprise, surprise: the cell carriers didn’t get rid of passwords

Remember this logo? I bet you don’t. | Image: ZenKey

Do you remember ZenKey, the app that AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint (gone, but not forgotten) pushed as the future of logging in to services without a password? If you do, you may be one of the only ones — as LightReading points out, it appears as though the joint venture quietly crumbled after the service started rolling out in 2019.

Originally announced as “Project Verify” in 2018, ZenKey was meant to be a single sign-on system, similar to the sign in with Google or Apple buttons that you see on various websites. The idea was that each carrier would offer an app that could verify your identity, then act as a pass whenever you went to log into a supported website or carry out something like a bank transfer. In theory, it could be...

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