A new report from Juniper Research has found that that more than 770 million biometric authentication applications will be downloaded per annum by 2019, up from just 6 million this year. It argued that fingerprint authentication would account for the overwhelming majority of such apps in the medium term, driven by increasing deployment of fingerprint scanners within mid-range smartphones. The report also claimed that as consumers seek to reduce the likelihood of their social media profiles being hacked, service providers such as Facebook may turn to facial scanning to add value through increased authentication security.”]