Google Buys Tech That Could Replace Passwords

Google has just purchased a startup that hoped to change the way people log in. SlickLogin has been developing a system in which sites would play a uniquely generated and virtually inaudible sound, the BBC reports. An app on users' phones would pick up the sound, and send back a signal confirming the user's identity, using everything from GPS locations, WiFi, NFC, and Bluetooth to verify it. For the user it looks like this: Click a button, put your phone next to the computer, and you're in.

The product hasn't yet launched—the company only formed last August—though in September it told TechCrunch it was working with a "major international bank." SlickLogin is based in Israel, and its founders honed their security chops in the Israel Defense Forces, Haaretz reports. In a statement on their website, the founders said Google shared their "core beliefs that logging in should be easy instead of frustrating," pointing out that it was the first company to offer free two-step verification. The terms of the deal haven't been disclosed. (More Google stories.)