Facebook's new feature could kill passwords for good

MENLO PARK, California (KTRK) -- Forget your mom's maiden name and the street you grew up on -- recovering a forgotten password could soon be as simple as taking a short quiz about your Facebook friends.

The social networking behemoth has launched an open beta test of its Delegated Account Recovery feature, which uses information from your Facebook profile in place of a traditional password.

When a user needs to authenticate himself or herself, Facebook will present a quiz asking the user to identify Facebook friends in photos.

Facebook touts the feature as being more secure than traditional password recovery methods like email and text messages, which are susceptible to hacking.

"With Delegated Account Recovery, people can ensure they have a reliable way to regain access in extraordinary circumstances, using strongly attached accounts, without sharing personal information," Facebook explained on its developer website.

For now, the technology is only available to developers, but Facebook plans to make it available to the public in the future.

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