Apple Said To Team With Visa, MasterCard On iPhone Wallet 187
An anonymous reader writes with news about a possible partnership between Apple and major credit card companies. Apple plans to turn its next iPhone into a mobile wallet through a partnership with major payment networks, banks and retailers, according a person familiar with the situation. The agreement includes Visa, MasterCard, and American Express and will be unveiled on Sept. 9 along with the next iPhone, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The new iPhone will make mobile payment easier by including a near-field communication chip for the first time, the person said. That advancement along with Touch ID, a fingerprint recognition reader that debuted on the most recent iPhone, will allow consumers to securely pay for items in a store with the touch of a finger.
As much as I hate Apple (Score:4, Interesting)
This will be good because it might finally get businesses serious about exception NFC transactions. As long as it's not some proprietary bullshit on Apple's end, of course.
Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not really a surprising move from Apple. It was more or less a given once they rolled out TouchID.
On the flip side, I've been listening to various Internet commentators go on and on about how Apple "has to have NFC" (reason: "because Android does"). Meanwhile, I've had an RFID credit card for approximately five years now, and, despite attempting to use it at numerous terminals marked with the RFID symbols, have only been successful in using it less than five times. Apparently no one running a retail payment terminal cares.
Even if you are a hater, you have to admit Apple's entry into this market will help spur businesses to roll out NFC terminals, or switch on NFC on their existing terminals, or just make sure the NFC works.
Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Interesting)
I use NFC for payment every day without issue. It's a mature, reliable technology, at least in most places. I think where there have been issues it's usually due to retailers insisting on using certain companies with new tech, instead of established ones.
The real problem is the lack of standards. Japan has e-wallets, there is Google Wallet and now it looks like there will be a third and incompatible Apple wallet. What are the chances that other payment providers will be allowed to use NFC on Apple hardware for their own systems? Could you ditch the Apple wallet and install Google Wallet instead?
Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Informative)
The real problem is the lack of standards. Japan has e-wallets, there is Google Wallet and now it looks like there will be a third and incompatible Apple wallet.
There are standards. Japan is its own world, but the Google Wallet and ISIS (a consortium of mobile network operators and banks who created the ISIS wallet -- yes they're looking for a new name) relies on standard EMV payment protocols -- slightly modified by the US Visa, MC, AMEX and Discover organizations, but not incompatibly so. Apple will follow the EMV standards as well, or they'll get nowhere, because retailers are a slow-moving, cost-conscious group.
Visa and MasterCard announced two years ago that they'll implement the "liability shift" the end of 2015, which means that from 2016 onward 100% of fraud will be charged to whichever entity in the chain (merchant, merchant acquirer, clearing house, issuer) does not have the EMV smart chip technology implemented. Since merchants get stuck with 98% of fraud, and other links in the chain are moving slowly, this will provide a huge incentive for merchants to install EMV-capable point of sale terminals. That doesn't require them to deploy NFC-capable terminals, but they will, and many of them are.
Not even Apple is capable of creating an entirely new payment ecosystem. They'll play ball with the banks and card associations, or they'll go nowhere.
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Not even Apple is capable of creating an entirely new payment ecosystem. They'll play ball with the banks and card associations, or they'll go nowhere.
So what you're saying is that Apple is going to get nowhere.
Apple doesn't follow standards.
Google chose NFC for the Android phones because NFC was a standard, it was well defined, mature and compatible. I can read NFC enabled cards from my phone (all you need is the software to interpret the output). Its only a matter of time before I can make payments via NFC on my Android phone.
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Apple doesn't follow standards.
Bluetooth, USB, GSM/CDMA? Apple follows standards just fine when they need to.
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Its only a matter of time before I can make payments via NFC on my Android phone.
Oh, I should have mentioned... I've been making payments via NFC on my Android phones for nearly three years. Actually, these days I'd say about 80% of my in-person retail purchases are made with my phone.
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Apparently no one running a retail payment terminal cares.
Virtually every walmart, walgreens, CVS, and mcdonalds I've seen has one.
This is a long time coming IMO, but I can still see the tinfoil hat crowd rejecting it. Too much FUD goes around about RFID (like those little credit card faraday cages that some infomercials sell) to make it seem somehow dangerous (I remember when the internet itself was considered dangerous by these types...anybody remember the Sandra Bullock movie "The Net"?)
In reality though, RFID payment, at least in the Android implementation I'v
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The issue, or rather concern, with the on-card contact-less payments (VISA PayPass, etc.) is that someone could activate it while it was still in you wallet in your pocket via a specially designed (any maybe illegal; but that hasn't been known to stop thieves) hardware, and that this could be used a avenue for fraud. Not sure if there was ever a real life POC of this working or not.
Don't worry about it... I mean yes it is possible, but contactless has been widely rolled out in the UK for a while and the sky hasn't fallen. Ultimately you can challenge any bad charges pretty easily (if you notice them) on your statement, and since all this stuff goes tracably through the credit card system then it's not going to take many chargebacks for the dodgy reader to get them all rolled back and the criminal flagged.
Re: As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Interesting)
More importantly, the underlying technology is totally different. VISA Europe is not at all the same as VISA USA. VISA in Europe is a coalition of banks, VISA USA is a private company. America has never rolled out EMV, making its banking industry a ridiculous joke compared to, well, everywhere else. You don't get reports of major European supermarket chains getting their PoS systems hacked and magstripes skimmed like you do in the US, because EMV is a much more secure system.
The NFC payment cards that are rolling out around the world (outside USA) now are basically a variant of EMV/Chip and PIN. The underlying crypto is the same. The card signs a challenge from the terminal. They're upgrading to elliptic curve crypto at the moment actually, not sure if all NFC cards do that or not but it would not surprise me. NFC as tried by Google in America is actually a very minor variant on just sending your magstripe data via radio. I believe the CVC code rotates (three digits of entropy lol) and the tech is based on a Secure Element hard-wired to the NFC radio. But the phone has minimal control over the actual payment transaction, thus doesn't add much value beyond being a big battery, and that's why the tech largely stalled. Also they screwed up the compatibility testing and the terminals were full of bugs that meant transactions just sort of randomly failed.
So don't be fooled. The "NFC payments" that we know outside of North America is totally different to what they call "NFC payments", which is an unfortunate piece of linguistic confusion.
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I am missing one of your point - why does it matter that VISA is owned by bank in Europe and is private in the US? Why does that matter?
I assume that you know that VISA was a single company until 2006. At that point the US Banks cashed out by selling VISA to the public and the European bans went their own way.
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From a user POV, using a VISA card outside of the USA is far more secure then using a VISA card within the USA, in 2014; or at least within the EU. You're correct in that the ownership of The VISA Corporation is irrelevant.
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The ownership is relevant because Banks are much more strictly regulated. The better security is a direct outcome of VISA being owned by a bank.
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What regulations are you talking about? In America both banks and charge / merchant / debit cards fall under the same laws. Banks may be more highly regulated but then again they are doing more things. That is, they make loans, take deposits etc. But I can't think of a major difference in terms of principals on how checking is treated differently than cards. For example, the same standards, a signature, are used for both. The differences I know of are on specifics, for example extra safeguards built into c
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This is actually more of a problem than a solution, low transaction amounts are more likely to be missed by a person, here is a quote from the terms and conditions of a credit card I assume most have similar clauses:
You are responsible for checking your statements to ensure their accuracy and advising us of any mistakes, even if you are not at the address to which you have requested us to send statements. If you do not notify us of a disputed transaction within the time period stated below, then the charge or record of the transaction will remain on your account. If you wish to dispute any transaction recorded in your monthly statement, you must notify us in writing within 30 days of the statement period closing date, giving the following information:
I am very likely miss a $20 transaction on my credit card statement and not at all likely to miss a $2000 one. So I am likely bare the burden of the crime. If they are really that secure why not have all transactions contactless no pin.
I also am interested in knowing if I increase the power of
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It's a safe bet that any new iPhones will have the fingerprint scanner built in that can be used for this purpose.
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Your card was declined because they're totally different and incompatible technologies. NFC payment cards from outside the USA aren't the same as "NFC payments" inside the USA (which require mobile phones as far as I can tell).
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I am in Australia and have Visa PayWave attached to my card yet I never use it (using EFTPOS instead) because there are fees attached to PayWave but not EFTPOS (with my bank at least) and because EFTPOS transactions show up faster and better on my online banking.
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Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
The only fair price to enable spending your own money is zero.
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But once spending is enabled, is it somehow bad to provide convenience services that cost very little? Especially if the person is happy to pay for them?
Because otherwise your post is irrelevant. Posting something true in a limited context but not relevant where it is posted is not insightful.
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I am in Australia and have Visa PayWave attached to my card yet I never use it (using EFTPOS instead) because there are fees attached to PayWave but not EFTPOS (with my bank at least) and because EFTPOS transactions show up faster and better on my online banking.
Australian here, I'll explain this one.
In Australia you have three options when you pay by card, Savings, Cheque and Credit. These define what network the transaction goes through and that determines what fees and charges are applied to the transaction.
Savings and Cheque are part of the EFTPOS network and have a small per transaction fee (usually in the vicinity of A$0.20) that the merchant absorbs. This network is Aus/NZ specific and is not related to similarly named networks overseas.
Credit routes
Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Funny)
The "as much as I hate Apple" line is getting old. That's like a sentence that starts with "I'm not racist but...".
Quite the opposite. It would like a sentence as "I'm a racist, but that nigger is right..."
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The only thing I hate more than racists, is that nigger in my swimming pool!
Re: As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
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So Apple's share of a growing market is shrinking. That's exponentially worse. It means that as more and more people decide to buy phones, less and less choose Apple products. I don't see how this vindicates you, but logic was never the strong suit of Apple customers anyways.
Maybe you long for those days where being an Apple customer was special because the company's market share was in the low single digits - but don't worry, it's heading there fast.
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Last week I broke my Nexus. As I was shopping for a new unlocked phone I was astonished by the price differences.
iPhone 5S: $780
Galaxy S5: $580
Nokia 1520: $500
Nexus 5: $350
Yet the actual hardware is not in line with the prices; as an example most of the non-Apple devices in that list have twice the RAM as the iPhone and a much more powerful chip (such as quadcore Snapdragon vs a basic dual-core A7). Or for devices with the same OS, the difference in hardware does not really make up for the difference in pri
Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, in all honesty, Apple still has the best selling smartphone, undisputed. Granted, the 127 different models Samsung produces are selling more, but Apple makes three phones in the top 6, just like Samsung. The iPhone 5c is the #1.
http://news.yahoo.com/apple-sa... [yahoo.com]
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Ironically, Justin Bieber is merely the cutting edge of sort of meme-generated, metric-driven and ad-supported celebrity Google and YouTube have enabled and profit handsomely from. Justin Bieber is the sort of musician you get when people don't pay for music, and "sells most" is merely one trivial statistic. What matters for musicians now is their Brand Reach, their impact, their ability to steer demo
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Before making this kind of statement, did you ever listen carefully at a Justin Bieber's song? Did you take a minute to read the lyrics and reflect on their meaning?
Haha just kidding. If I was not boycotting the mod system (which leads to a situation where someone saying that the iPhone is the best phone is voted "insightful") I would mod you up.
Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Market share isn't the important factor though. iPhone sales have grown every year. Apple's profits have grown every year. They are the most profitable phone vendor by a long way. If that's failing, I'd love to fail as hard as Apple are.
Re: As much as I hate Apple (Score:2)
Monocultures can be very successful. They do have associated risks though. Diversity usually wins in the end.
Apple of course are in no immediate danger, they're doing just fine. Though I do wonder why Apple fans point to their huge profits as a good thing.. Good for Apple, certainly; not quite so much for their customers.
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So who "won" in the PC industry?
Dell -- revenues and profits declined so badly they went private?
HP - PC division is doing so bad they almost got rid of it.
IBM -- completely left the business
Compaq - Dead
Gateway - Dead
And at the same time, who is "winning" selling Android? Samsung is about the only one and their profits are declining because of Apple on the high end and Chinese manufacturers on the
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All those companies won. They made great profits from an important product. So what if many are no longer in business. Many steam engine companies are out of business. That doesn't mean that steam engines were bad and we should have invested more in horses or blimps. Life moves on.
'Losers' wou
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Dell and Gateway were founded after Apple, Apple saw them born and buried them. If you bough $10,000 of Apple stock in 1990 you'd be a millionaire today; if you'd put it on Gateway 2000...
I mean, that they won once is interesting, but what's changed that keeps them from winning? Many steam engine companies are out of business, so why does Apple, a putative "steam engine company," make so much money? Are computers really comparable to steam engines?
GE used to sell steam engines, GE
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The obvious answer is that Apple was farsighted enough to diversify its product line, and came up with some innovative music players and phones.
My monoculture comment was more aimed at the iPhone line specifically. It's been very successful but lost market share anyway, because many people want something different. Apple itself will likely continue to do well, as long as it can create entirely new product lines as the old ones fail (as the iPod is doing now).
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A good company run by strong management knows how to adapt. A steam engine company that went out of business is evidence of management that thought they were in the "steam engine" business and not the business of powering things.
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Dell -- revenues and profits declined so badly they went private?
You don't know what you are talking about. Dell went private because they wanted to switch the company's focus on enterprise services and software, but the short-term agenda of shareholders was preventing them to do that and was forcing them to keep wasting energy trying to increase their PC sales.
Apple is facing the same problem. They have to deliver gigantic growth each quarter to please investors. That's why innovation has been stalled for so many years in that company, they have to sell and sell and sel
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So that must explain why Apple had to go private to switch the company's focus from selling computers, to selling mp3 players, music, phones, and tablets....
oh wait...
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It's like you think that going private is a bad thing or is a sign of financial struggle. But it's quite the opposite; a company that goes public is basically borrowing money from a shitload of small investors, and giving away the control of the company to a group of board members elected by the investors. And from that point there is an ongoing conflict between the people in the company who want to work on long term projects and the investors who want to see the stock price go up and to receive higher divi
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The users are winning, because they're not being roped into a monoculture.
In the non-Apple PC market, users are losing. The only distinguishing feature between different PCs is the price, so we have a race to the lowest price. This may be helpful to some degree to people without money, but most people end up with a rubbish PC, even if they could afford something much better, because they just can't buy it.
Apple is now making more than 50% of all profits from computer hardware sales. Because nobody else manages to create and sell a product that people would be willing to pay go
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With inferior hardware, horrible support, and crapware infested computers?
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That might explain the lack of Mac mini update in years.
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But of course while Apple's share keeps going down year after year, there is always a justification in the iCommunity
I'll tell you what you are missing. You are looking at the share in the "smartphone" market, while I would look at the share in the "phone" market. Apple's share of the phone market has been growing year after year after year without fail. At the same time, more and more phones have been converted from non-smart phones to smartphones, but that doesn't affect Apple's business whatsoever.
There are people comparing Apple's and Samsung's sales, but if you compare Apple and Nokia, Apple now sells more phones,
Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
Hahahaha! You're proud of being overcharged?
That Stockholm syndrome is some really powerful shit...
Clearly you are a hater. But why waste the energy? I use an iphone 4S since 3 years and I don't mindwhen others use whatever Android device. Good for them. Good for me.
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Boogeyman 'samsung' isn't out to get your device, just like 'IBM' wasn't out to get your mac.
This was in fact exactly my point.
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Really? They seem to perform positive ethical acts quite regularly. Supporting gay rights. Enforcing worker rights in their contracts abroad. Making their products environmentally friendly. Improving the privacy of their users. Why do you think their ethics are non-existent?
Re:As much as I hate Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
You're really setting up a no win situation here. If they don't perform positive ethical acts, then they are unethical. If they do, then it's just "brand management bullet points".
It's funny though, how we have two people here - one calling them unethical, and one pointing out ethical things that they have done - and you perceive this as "there's somebody here worshipping the brand". Not two people with different opinions. One person with a suspect opinion. That's an odd perception.
Also, if anybody is astroturfing, I'd lay my money on the anonymous coward and not the person with a Slashdot account that is several years old with excellent karma.
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They spent money commissioning a video celebrating gay pride [venturebeat.com].
They spent money on lawyers to petition the Californian government on Prop 8 [techcrunch.com].
They donated $100K to the No to 8 campaign [macrumors.com].
Their supplier responsibility reports [apple.com] have been auditing their suppliers for discrimination for years.
Again, like the other guy I responded to, you're setting up a no win situation. They don't supp
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They've been doing that for many years. Here's the info [apple.com], specifically the products [apple.com]. Even Greenpeace are singing their praises [greenpeace.org], specifically, saying: Apple has put its money where its mouth is: Greenpeace's report, "Clicking Clean," found that the company's embrace of renewable energy is genuine, and is leading the technology sector.
So your evidence that Apple makes environmentally friendly products is that Apple says so, and that Greenpeace (basically the greeners equivalent of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition) is singing their praise?
Here's the real thing (read more on http://www.naturalnews.com/031... [naturalnews.com]):
Many large, multinational companies have operation facilities in China, including HP, Sony, Nokia, Samsung, and Toshiba. But among a list of 29 major companies that run facilities there, Apple turned out to be the worst overall, rout
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Why is some random naturalnews.com website I've never heard of and which is run by a single person more legitimate a source than Greenpeace?
More to the point, why haven't you read the sources I provided? Part of the point of the Greenpeace article I linked to is that Apple are making stronger pushes in this area and being more transparent. That article was published in 2014. Your article was published in 2011. So Greenpeace say
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Because most small businesses and sole proprietorships will be owned and operated by people who have a gadget capable of acting as a cash register in their back pocket for unrelated reasons. The transaction-processing capability is just gravy, for them.
So it's like Google Wallet? (Score:2)
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lol? whole europe is using nfc now
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And Australia's had it for years too. When I ordered it, I had to make sure my phone was the international version with NFC support, because the US model doesn't have it.
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Samsung's latest phones do NFC payment in Australia. There's no reason it couldn't work, besides vendor apathy.
Bad timing, Apple (Score:3, Informative)
Considering iCloud was hacked and massive amounts of nude celebrity photos were taken from it, people probably aren't too trusting of your security at this point.
Re:Bad timing, Apple (Score:5, Informative)
That's just 4chan rumours at the moment. No point in taking them seriously unless there's confirmation.
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Re:Bad timing, Apple (Score:5, Informative)
It appears to be confirmed now: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/... [bbc.co.uk]
Worryingly some of the affected claim that the images which were leaked had been deleted years ago. If you want your iCloud account deleted rather than just made inactive you have to call Apple and get a tech to call you back.
Nothing really new (Score:3)
What's the big deal? Mobile payment exists since the late 1990s.
Re:Nothing really new (Score:4, Insightful)
What's the big deal?
Hundreds of millions of potential customers will have this technology on Apple's [single] platform. Keyword: "Single."
Now don't talk of Android because we know it's all fragmented.
Blackberry? Well, this is of no consequence.
Microsoft? It still doesn't matter.
Who else? Got your answer: Anyone cares about this? I doubt.
Mobile payment exists since the late 1990s.
Yes, but Apple's gonna finally do it "right."
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Android fragmentation is irrelevant. The number of NFC enabled Android phones vastly outnumbers the number of Apple NFC enabled phones, which is currently zero. Even if the iPhone six sells as well as the iPhone 5 before it the market for Apple vs. Android payments (and all NFC enabled Android devices support it, regardless of OS version) will probably force Apple to be compatible at some stage.
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Google has so far been completely lackadaisical about doing the legwork with business partners to enable their NFC payments system. What Google has to do is go on a stage with Visa and MasterCard, and talk about how every POS will be accepting Android NFC payments in 6 months, and we'll give a free phone to every merchant in America who can't afford to upgrade.
The business deals are necessary before the NFC hardware is useful. Just because Android phones have an antenna and a chip, it doesn't mean that ev
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Seeing how NFC typically needs hardware support, it would be starting with this generation of devices, and unless Apple does something different from the usual "downgrade existing top tier models and drop the bottom" then only the top end and most expensive models for the next couple years will have it.
Unless they sell a lower-priced iWatch or some other dongle that "expands" the existing iP
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This is already available for the iPhone and you can buy it for under $20:
http://www.shoeme.ca/products/... [shoeme.ca]
Why? Nobody uses NFC payments (Score:2)
A few years ago, those Google NFC payment terminals were all over Silicon Valley. Nobody used them. Newer credit card terminals show no sign of supporting them, although some apparently have the hardware inside for it.
Another problem is that if the technology just requires the phone's presence, not interaction on the phone, it's insecure. "Near field communication" is only supposed to be up to 20cm, but a 2013 paper at Black Hat demonstrated connectivity at 100cm, which is good enough for crime. If it do
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We have NFC credit cards in Australia now. They don't seem to have caused a big uptick in fraud. Also, the worst you could do from a distance (assuming you could communicate with the card for long enough) would be to process a payment of up to $100 - you can't actually copy the card.
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NFC payment cards in Australia/Europe cryptographically sign a challenge from the terminal, using basically standard crypto. It's EMV all the way. In-person magstripe payments are carefully controlled and risk analysed to ensure they only occur if, for example, the card is broken - or outright banned.
NFC payments in the USA involve the phone sending regular magstripe data to the terminal, with only the CVC code being some kind of cryptographic derivative - a three digit number (less than 1000). The reason f
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US is really that backwards? And I thought the "offline mode" in Europe where the card verifies the PIN was bad enough.
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The card itself is indeed capable of verifying the PIN, which is used for online banking and payments (at least it is in the Netherlands). Online banking uses one-time passwords (OTP), generated by a small dongle into which the bank card is inserted. The card's PIN has to be entered on the dongle every time in order to generate an OTP, and the card will lock
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There's an offline mode that's available in Europe where the card verifies the PIN entered on the terminal. This mode has been shown to be vulnerable to compromised hardware as response for a valid PIN is predictable. The cards in Australia are incapable of verifying the PIN at all - you can set or change your PIN for many cards using an online service without the card present.
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NFC payment cards in Australia/Europe cryptographically sign a challenge from the terminal, using basically standard crypto. It's EMV all the way. In-person magstripe payments are carefully controlled and risk analysed to ensure they only occur if, for example, the card is broken - or outright banned.
You know nothing about bank security.
First off, the NFC cards are not cryptographically secure in the slightest. In fact they give out your card number, name and expiry date to anything that asks for it and once a crim has your CC number they can do all manner of things with it from online transactions to cloning the card itself. This app for any NFC enabled android phone can read your card [google.com], last I checked the source code is available for the uncensored version. This is not top secret info, it was based
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With KitKat (Android 4.4 on a Nexus 5), you press the button to wake the phone, tap on the payment thing (starts Google Wallet, no interaction other than the tap), then enter a PIN number for Google Wallet (the user interaction/verification). There's another tap to verify the total and you are done. There is no scenario that doesn't require the PIN.
I wish my local grocery stores supported it.
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A few years ago, those Google NFC payment terminals were all over Silicon Valley. Nobody used them. Newer credit card terminals show no sign of supporting them, although some apparently have the hardware inside for it.
Another problem is that if the technology just requires the phone's presence, not interaction on the phone, it's insecure. "Near field communication" is only supposed to be up to 20cm, but a 2013 paper at Black Hat demonstrated connectivity at 100cm, which is good enough for crime. If it does require interaction on the phone, the user has to activate the phone, navigate to some app, and deal with the app. This is slower than swiping a credit card.
It's easier to do than card-reader skimmers.
This is why a phone is better than the NFC cards most people have in their wallet right now.
The Paywave/Paypass NFC cards will give the card details to anything that asks for them. All the malicious software has to do is follow the spec available to the general public on Visas and Mastercards websites. That's how this little app came about (actually this is the censored version, the source code is available on github). The card gives out the number, name and expiry date... basically everything written on [google.com]
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Love or hate Apple, they're good at simple. There's no way they're going to make people do a full unlock and locate an app for NFC payments, it'll be integrated right into the OS and in all likelihood be disgustingly convenient.
I imagine something like, you'll have activated NFC from your slide-up tray... then probably just swipe your phone near the merchant terminal, slide to accept an alert box, and then thumbprint to confirm the transaction.
This could be big (Score:2)
Even so this is part of normal technical evolution. If Apple doesn't crack the nut, eventually someone else will. I am more interested in the expected wearable hea
It is time someone belled the cat. But wish.. (Score:5, Informative)
The cost of handling transactions is steadily diminishing. There was a time it would cost you something between 49$ and 149$ to place a single trade. It dropped to well below 10$ when I was still trading. Would not be surprised if they give you money to place a trade or something now. Compare it to the debit card transaction.
When it comes to creditcard I would not begrudge the 2% to 5% fee charged to the merchants. The credit card companies are essentially advancing an unsecured loan, and it would cost the individual merchants much more to check and advance credit to their customers. (Of course it there is some real competition the percentage might come down). But it is the debit card transaction that is atrocious. Money comes from the bank, there is no risk involved. There was a very nice system, including PIN numbers to manage the POS terminals. Way back when stock trade was 49$, it was 25 cent per transaction irrespective of the size of transaction. This should have become zero. But that is not what happened.
The Visa and Mastecard combined to discourage ATM cards and the POS terminals and undermined the system. They made debit and credit card to go through the same system. And the merchants were forced to pay 2% transaction fees on risk free money transfer from one bank to another.
The time is ripe, with prepaid cards and stored value cards for really cheap and free micro transactions. It took the clout of Apple to hit the music executives on their head and make them wake up, smell the coffee and realize the days of selling single track with 10 more useless tracks for 19$ per CD are gone. It might take such a juggernaut like Apple to make the bankers come around the bend and give up their 2% commission on risk free transactions.
But I wish we are not going from the duopoly of MC + Visa to a monopoly of AppStore. Well one thing at a time. Once the bankers get used to lower fees commensurate with the cost of transactions, may be alternatives to AppStore might emerge, and the system might become more open.
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The 25 cent transaction fee is charged by the acquiring bank, not Visa and Mastercard - whose fees for debit are typically 1 cent per transaction as they are a volume based business.
The reason that acquirers charge is because they incur costs associated with that
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But looks like Apple is also talking to MC/Visa. So Apple does not seem to be competing with them, rather it i
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Next Step, iChip! (Score:2)
Back to the Future 2 (Score:2)
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Ah nevermind, I got it. It's not terribly obvious though...
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Please disregard previous comment, reading multiple forums at once ain't such a good idea after all.
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Coin is going to be dead in the water as soon as US requires chip cards. The whole point of chip cards is that the key never leaves the chip and it can't be copied. They talk about supporting it in the future but can't elaborate on a plan, as they don't have one. They also have blatant misinformation about "chip and sign" on their site. "Chip and sign" uses the ICC chip to verify card presence, but you sign the receipt rather than entering a PIN. The Coin people claim you still use the magnetic strip,
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easily lost stolen hacked phone equipped with a radio broadcasting your CC info 24/7
Easily hacked? How would you go about hacking an iPhone?
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The negativity is because this is Slashdot. The second reason is that it is about Apple.
"Nothing new" - yeah, and cell phones existed years before iPhone - how did that work out.
Haters will hate.
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The corporation famous for its slave labor and environmentally damaging manufacturing policies?
What company would that be? I heard of Samsung whose employees keep dying from leukaemia, but I didn't know they used slave labor. They should have a look at Apple, who is usually years ahead of others with their environmental policies, who have forced agencies to pay back millions of dollars to employees in China, and how force their contractors to send everyone caught employing underage person to send them back to finish school _and pay them a full salary while they are at school_.
The corporation that works with the NSA to cripple your phone and provides whatever is asked of it to the security forces.
What company would that