There has been a lot of talk in the tech and regular media
recently about digital security so I just wanted to write a word about some of these issues by passing on some links to read.
Firstly, a note about mobile payments in shops:
The gist here is that many shops are doing whatever they can
to deter people from using Apple Pay over other solutions because Apple Pay
stops the shops and related merchants from accessing personal information about
the people shopping with them.
If you’re wondering why this would be a bad thing, here is
an article about the type of information that shops are trying to collect about
every single person who walks through their doors:
If you didn’t read that (TL; DR), it says that what Target
(huge chain in America) is trying to do is work out if you’re pregnant even if
you don’t want them to know from your
spending habits.
Yes, this stuff is possible. And we are at the start of an
enormous digital path. Many people thought that contactless payments would not
catch on because of the insecurity – if you have a mobile register you can walk
past someone’s pocket and charge them up to £20 without them knowing (this has happened) – however we now have
contactless everywhere because of the convenience.
We have actually been on this path for a while – contactless
was introduced back in 1997. Consumers have been wanting a “pay by phone”
method for a long time (I even pay for parking using an iPhone app) simply for
the convenience.
What we have gained in convenience we have lost in security.
Be careful out there. Choose what you pay with and who you pay with care.
Further reading:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contactless_payment
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wallet
