It seems as though everyone is going crazy over Apple Pay. Though I’m not an iPhone user, I’m a little wary of the mobile wallet concept.
For those that haven’t been following, Apple Pay allows iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users to use their phone to pay at participating stores. Users will load their card onto their device ahead of time, so when they go to purchase, they simply have to put their finger on the touch ID and hold their phone over the Apple Pay API system — the stores must have adopted the system if they want to allow their customers to use their device.
This is made possible by the newest iPhone and the upcoming Apple Watch integrating a near field communication (NFC) chip in the device.
In the first 72 hours of being released, more than a million cards were activated on the devices. Only certain cards can be used on the device, but it’s easy to enter card information since you can simply use the camera to capture the card details.
Apparently, this tech also makes it easy to do mobile shopping on your device, which would appeal to me immensely.
The mobile wallet isn’t something unique to Apple. Google Wallet does essentially the same thing, minus the touch ID feature.
It sounds extremely convenient to use and I feel there wouldn’t be many issues with the overall security when using the device. It seems like phones have in-device security pretty well maintained. But what worries me is the security of keeping your information on the device. Apple said that the NFC chip keeps the information completely secure. It also uses “tokenization,” which allows payments to be made without exchanging complete card numbers.
While it sounds completely secure, my worry is that information will somehow become compromised down the line. The technology is using some advanced security measures, but are there people out there with the ability to outsmart it?
Sophie Kruse is a junior studying journalism. Have you used Apple Pay? Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu or send her a tweet @kruseco
