Showing posts with label iphone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iphone. Show all posts
Thursday, February 03, 2022
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Selfie pay: Security fears as facial recognition set to revolutionise payments
A LEADING privacy group has warned that so-called selfie pay is another massive step towards a “Big Brother” society.
By Paul Harper / Published 3rd February 2018
Facial recognition ID is predicted to replace cash and cards in future as a standard form of payments.
Just last week it emerged MasterCard customers will be able to pay for their shopping by using a selfie from April next year.
Mark Barnett, from Mastercard, said: “Biometric technologies perfectly meet the public’s expectation for state-of-the-art security when making a payment.
"This will be of great benefit to everyone: consumers, retailers and banks.”
GETTY
THREAT: Selfie pay face payment systems have raised fears of Big Brother-style surveillance
Artificial intelligence: AI in the past, present and future
AI is creeping into ever corner of our lives
Getty Images
A 1949 illustration shows a man with an electronic circuit board for a brain
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Cashless buying and selling by (Smart) phone comes to America
Apple iPhone 6 to feature mobile wallet NFC payment system
New contactless mobile payments service will put Apple in competition with PayPal, Google, US mobile networks and banks
Juliette Garside and Alex Hern in London
theguardian.com, Tuesday 9 September 2014 14.26 EDT
Eddy Cue introduces ApplePay. Photograph: Apple
Apple has introduced a mobile wallet in the iPhone 6, joining a growing army of banks and technology companies aiming to wean the world away from cash.
Owners of the latest version of the world’s best selling mobile phone will be able to pay for purchases at tills and eventually journeys on buses and tube trains by touching their phones on wireless readers.
Experts are already predicting that Apple’s new iPhones could revolutionise the way we shop in the same way that the Californian computing group has already transformed the music, mobile and personal computing industries.
Tim Cook said: “We’re gonna start by focusing on payments. Payments is a huge business. Every day between credit and debit we spend 12 billion dollars. That’s over 4 trillion dollars a year, and that’s just in the United States … 200 million transactions a day. That’s 200 million times we scramble for our credit cards and go through what is a fairly antiquated process.”
Users will scan and add a card to their iPhone. In an effort to allay security fears, Apple said the Find My iPhone app will be able to suspend all payments from a device if it is lost. Apple will not know how much is spent on an item and the cashier will not see the security code.
The service, known as Apple Pay, launches in the US with American Express, MasterCard and Visa, along with banks representing 83% of all credit card payments by volume. McDonald’s will have compatible tills, along with Disney’s theme parks and the Whole Foods Market. Developers will be able to build apps for Apple pay using an API available from next month.
The technology, which Apple has been developing since 2009 when it filed the first of an estimated 23 patents on wireless payments, has already reached a tipping point in the UK, where most current account holders already own touch to pay cards.
Chains including sandwich maker Pret a Manger, coffee shop group Starbucks and many newsagents already accept these so called NFC (near field communication) payments. They allow devices, each equipped with an NFC chip and placed within a few centimetres of each other to exchange data.
The path to creating a mass market substitute for cash is littered with failed attempts by some of the best known names in banking and technology. Released in the US in 2011, the Google Wallet limps on but a planned expansion to the UK was cancelled. After vowing to change the way the world buys stuff, Twitter’s founder, Jack Dorsey, withdrew his Square Wallet from the Apple and Google app stores, while Visa’s V.me, which launched in Europe last winter, and was rebranded Visa Checkout this summer and has barely registered at the tills.
With more than 800m iCloud accounts in use, of which almost all have a credit card attached for payments for apps, movies and TV shows, the move means Apple could rapidly become one of the most powerful forces in mobile payments, where it will contend with Google’s Wallet scheme, similar efforts from PayPal and another run by US carriers that has recently been rebranded as Softcard. Neither Google Wallet nor Softcard has achieved significant uptake among users or retailers – and all eyes will be on Apple to see whether its initiative stalls, or takes off.
ApplePay will also work online, and, of course, in apps on the company’s devices.
Apple will have to reassure customers worried over last week’s iCloud hack, in which celebrities saw private pictures taken on iPhones spread on web chatrooms, that their mobile details will be safe.
Anthony Duffy, a director of retail banking at Fujitsu, said: “With the launch of the iPhone 6 and its payment capability, Apple has once again sent out a challenge to the industry – and this time it has the payments market in its sights. This sector, already undergoing massive evolution as Internet and mobile payments take hold and new providers target perceived opportunities, will be revolutionised if Apple’s mobile wallet grabs the public attention.
However, the credit card details associated with an iCloud account cannot be copied from it, even when accessed using the owner’s email and password.
“We don’t store the credit card number, and we don’t give it to the merchant … each time you pay, we use a one-time payment number along with a dynamic security code,” explained Eddy Cue, the company’s vice president in charge of software.
In a nod to rival Google, Cue also boasted of the service’s focus on privacy. “Security is at the core of Pay, but so is privacy. We’re not in the business of collecting your data.” Apple won’t store where users spend their money, what they bought, or “any other details”, Cue said.
Attacking the dominance of credit cards, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, said that “we’re totally reliant on the exposed numbers and the outdated and vulnerable magnetic stripe interface. It’s no wonder that people have dreamed of replacing these for years, but they’ve all failed.” He blamed the prior failures on attempts to build “self-centred” business models.
According to eMarketer, US “mobile proximity” (NFC phone) payments amounted to $745.96m (£462m) in 2012, rising to $1.6bn in 2013. That however compares to total retail transactions worth trillions of dollars. In 2013, 11.16 million Americans made NFC-based mobile phone payments, amounting to just 8% of US smartphone users, though that marked a 57.1% increase from 7.1 million in 2012.
That means that for the whole of 2013, each user spent about $143 in total – up from $105 in 2012. Figures from Visa Europe indicate that across Europe there are 90m contactless cards in circulation, 1.5m contactless terminals, and that the average contactless purchase is worth €9.31 (£7.45). The number of transactions is still growing: they were worth 20m in the whole of May 2014 in the UK, according to Visa.
Apple’s system will enable people to make payments using the contactless payment technology already built into most British credit and debit cards and the Oyster travel payment system. It has had slow take up in the US, where comparatively few tills and cards are NFC-equipped – although tens of millions of Android smartphones are.
NFC systems used in the UK let users pay for goods up to £20 without having to swipe, insert the card into a reader or enter a pin. Instead they tap the card against a suitably equipped reader and the purchase is confirmed.
Having previously eschewed NFC, Apple has included it in its newest products – creating a new way to encourage people with iCloud accounts to transact on the credit cards registered there. Before Tuesday’s event, news site NFC World pointed to 23 NFC-related patents that Apple has amassed since 2009, the year before Google introduced the first NFC-enabled Android phone, the Nexus S.
Worldwide mobile payments surpassed $235bn in 2013, according to Gartner, a research company.
“We expect global mobile transaction volume and value to average 35% annual growth between 2012 and 2017, and we are forecasting a market worth $721bn with more than 450 million users by 2017,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner.
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How Twitter reacted when Apple’s launch didn’t go according to plan
• This article was amended on 10 September 2014 to update figures for the number of contactless cards and payment terminals in circulation.
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Related
Wendy’s Joins Burger King With New Mobile Payment iPhone App
John Brownlee (12:20 pm PDT, Mar 23rd)
It looks like paying for burgers using your iPhone is the next big trend in fast food.
Following Burger King’s announcement last week that it would be releasing a dedicate mobile app, Wendy’s has followed suit, unveiling their own iPhone-based payment app that will allow you to pay for Big Bacon Classics at any of Wendy’s 5,800 locations.
The app works a bit differently than Burger King’s app, which gave you a Passbook-style gift card that could be scanned on your iPhone. Rather, Wendy’s system allows users to launch the app to pull up a six digit number that can be given to a cashier for payment. Wendy’s said it’s a more suitable system for drive thrus, where you don’t want to have to give a server your iPhone from your car window.
Like Burger King’s app, the Wendy’s app functions as a virtual gift card, which you can top up or reload with money as you see fit. As of right now, though, there are no discounts or loyalty perks for users who use the app instead of paying in cash.
You can download the My Wendy’s app on the App Store for free here.
Source: http://www.cultofmac.com/271259/wendys-joins-burger-king-new-mobile-payment-iphone-app/#3MiCY1jkTIs8c2Xf.99
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Friday, December 07, 2012
Are Cell Phones Replacing Reality
Published on Dec 5, 2012
Can you live without your phone?
We've all become pretty attached to our cellular devices: it's a GPS, a camera, a game console, a social media portal... and half a million other things, all in our pocket! From concerts to meals to our pets, we process and experience the world through our phone. But as we see in so many mobile phone ads, the representations of these moments (whether its instagrams, foursquare check ins or Facebook shares) seem to be taking over and replacing the experience itself. In this brave new world is the mobile phone a tool, or a filter through which we experience a new reality?
Let us know what sorts of crazy ideas you have, about this episode and otherwise:
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Copyright: Forever Less One Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk862BbjWx4
Barats and Bereta - Hapi Birth Dey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f2PCWYAZQc
Everything is a Remix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmwwjikTHxw
PlusEcon Response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcCyRmHels0&feature=plcp
Paper Mentioned in Comments:
Carla Hesse - Rise of Intellectual Property
http://www.amacad.org/publications/spring2002/hesse.pdf
Music:
Roglok: http://vimeo.com/musicstore/track/21166
Level 5: Room for the Homelesshttp://www.jamendo.com/en/list/a101325/level-5
Tony Bullard: Rockin http://soundcloud.com/toekneebullard/rockin
EatMe: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/348390/eatme
The Grave Arcade - Graphix (Awesome Gif Idea Channel Remix!)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g5-IC7QrNI
Want some more Idea Channel?
Here's Last Week's episode: "Should 'Happy Birthday' be Protected by Copyright?" http://youtu.be/fzbSt0QG7mY
Want another one? Here ya go: "Is Nostalgia the Reason for Adventure Time's Amazing Awesomeness?"http://youtu.be/7MVvkqbXiws
Here's Some More: "Is YouTube Making Us Smarter?"http://youtu.be/8qjge9U_MiA
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Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Hail Mary! Catholic Church Blesses iPhone App
February 8, 2011 01.14pm EST
Hail Mary! Catholic Church Blesses iPhone App
By William Fenton
On the first day he created a YouTube channel. On the second day he embraced social networking. On the third day, the Pope went mobile.
The Catholic Church has blessed "Confession," a new iPhone app, according to a report from Reuters. Billed as the "perfect aid for every penitent," the $2 app from Little iApps helps worshippers track sins and pay penance.
In addition to a step-by-step guide to the sacrament, Confession explores your conscience through a personalized examination of your sex, age, and marital status. Password-protected profiles mean than more than one sinner can confess with privacy.
Despite looking almost as much fun as the real thing, the app doesn't aim to replace traditional confession—instead, it's a tool to help users understand their actions before visiting their priest. To this, the church approves: in what appears to be a first, senior officials in America bestowed their seal of approval to a mobile phone application.
Granted, this isn't the first time the church has embraced technology. In early 2009, the church launched a Vatican YouTube channel. At last month's 45th World Communications Day, Pope Benedict also urged Catholics to expand their relationships by embracing social-networking sites like Facebook. In this context, the church's e-embrace of Confession computes.
"Our desire is to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology," explained Patrick Leinen, developer at Little iApps. "Taking to heart Pope Benedict XVI's message from last years' World Communications Address, our goal with this project is to offer a digital application that is truly 'new media' at the service of the word."
Confession is available now through the iTunes App Store for $1.99. I for one plan to indulge, if only to see if the app scales to the demands of a devout sinner.
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Source
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Hail Mary! Catholic Church Blesses iPhone App
By William Fenton
On the first day he created a YouTube channel. On the second day he embraced social networking. On the third day, the Pope went mobile.
The Catholic Church has blessed "Confession," a new iPhone app, according to a report from Reuters. Billed as the "perfect aid for every penitent," the $2 app from Little iApps helps worshippers track sins and pay penance.
In addition to a step-by-step guide to the sacrament, Confession explores your conscience through a personalized examination of your sex, age, and marital status. Password-protected profiles mean than more than one sinner can confess with privacy.
Despite looking almost as much fun as the real thing, the app doesn't aim to replace traditional confession—instead, it's a tool to help users understand their actions before visiting their priest. To this, the church approves: in what appears to be a first, senior officials in America bestowed their seal of approval to a mobile phone application.
Granted, this isn't the first time the church has embraced technology. In early 2009, the church launched a Vatican YouTube channel. At last month's 45th World Communications Day, Pope Benedict also urged Catholics to expand their relationships by embracing social-networking sites like Facebook. In this context, the church's e-embrace of Confession computes.
"Our desire is to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology," explained Patrick Leinen, developer at Little iApps. "Taking to heart Pope Benedict XVI's message from last years' World Communications Address, our goal with this project is to offer a digital application that is truly 'new media' at the service of the word."
Confession is available now through the iTunes App Store for $1.99. I for one plan to indulge, if only to see if the app scales to the demands of a devout sinner.
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Source
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Monday, June 29, 2009
The Spy In Your Hand
By Benjamin Sutherland NEWSWEEK
Published Jun 6, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jun 15, 2009
Don't talk: your cell phone may be eavesdropping. Thanks to recent developments in "spy phone" software, a do-it-yourself spook can now wirelessly transfer a wiretapping program to any mobile phone. The programs are inexpensive, and the transfer requires no special skill. The would-be spy needs to get his hands on your phone to press keys authorizing the download, but it takes just a few minutes—about the time needed to download a ringtone.
This new generation of -user-friendly spy-phone software has become widely available in the last year—and it confers stunning powers. The latest programs can silently turn on handset microphones even when no call is being made, allowing a spy to listen to voices in a room halfway around the world. Targets are none the wiser: neither call logs nor phone bills show records of the secretly transmitted data.
More than 200 companies sell spy-phone software online, at prices as low as $50 (a few programs cost more than $300). Vendors are loath to release sales figures. But some experts—private investigators and consultants in counter-wiretapping, computer-security software and telecommunications market research—claim that a surprising number of people carry a mobile that has been compromised, usually by a spouse, lover, parent or co-worker. Many employees, experts say, hope to discover a supervisor's dishonest dealings and tip off the top boss anonymously. Max Maiellaro, head of Agata Christie Investigation, a private-investigation firm in Milan, estimates that 3 percent of mobiles in France and Germany are tapped, and about 5 percent or so in Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain. James Atkinson, a spy-phone expert at Granite Island Group, a security consultancy in Gloucester, Massachusetts, puts the number of tapped phones in the U.S. at 3 percent. (These approximations do not take into account government wiretapping.) Even if these numbers are inflated, clearly many otherwise law-abiding citizens are willing to break wiretapping laws.
Spyware thrives on iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smart phones because they have ample processing power. In the United States, the spread of GSM networks, which are more vulnerable than older technologies, has also enlarged the pool of potential victims. Spyware being developed for law-enforcement agencies will accompany a text message and automatically install itself in the victim's phone when the message is opened, according to an Italian developer who declined to be identified. One worry is that the software will find its way into the hands of criminals.
The current predicament is partly the result of decisions by Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion (producer of the BlackBerry) to open their phones to outside application-software developers, which created the opening for spyware. Antivirus and security programs developed for computers require too much processing power, even for smart phones. Although security programs are available for phones, by and large users haven't given the threat much thought. If the spying keeps spreading, that may change soon.
© 2009
Published Jun 6, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jun 15, 2009
Don't talk: your cell phone may be eavesdropping. Thanks to recent developments in "spy phone" software, a do-it-yourself spook can now wirelessly transfer a wiretapping program to any mobile phone. The programs are inexpensive, and the transfer requires no special skill. The would-be spy needs to get his hands on your phone to press keys authorizing the download, but it takes just a few minutes—about the time needed to download a ringtone.
This new generation of -user-friendly spy-phone software has become widely available in the last year—and it confers stunning powers. The latest programs can silently turn on handset microphones even when no call is being made, allowing a spy to listen to voices in a room halfway around the world. Targets are none the wiser: neither call logs nor phone bills show records of the secretly transmitted data.
More than 200 companies sell spy-phone software online, at prices as low as $50 (a few programs cost more than $300). Vendors are loath to release sales figures. But some experts—private investigators and consultants in counter-wiretapping, computer-security software and telecommunications market research—claim that a surprising number of people carry a mobile that has been compromised, usually by a spouse, lover, parent or co-worker. Many employees, experts say, hope to discover a supervisor's dishonest dealings and tip off the top boss anonymously. Max Maiellaro, head of Agata Christie Investigation, a private-investigation firm in Milan, estimates that 3 percent of mobiles in France and Germany are tapped, and about 5 percent or so in Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain. James Atkinson, a spy-phone expert at Granite Island Group, a security consultancy in Gloucester, Massachusetts, puts the number of tapped phones in the U.S. at 3 percent. (These approximations do not take into account government wiretapping.) Even if these numbers are inflated, clearly many otherwise law-abiding citizens are willing to break wiretapping laws.
Spyware thrives on iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smart phones because they have ample processing power. In the United States, the spread of GSM networks, which are more vulnerable than older technologies, has also enlarged the pool of potential victims. Spyware being developed for law-enforcement agencies will accompany a text message and automatically install itself in the victim's phone when the message is opened, according to an Italian developer who declined to be identified. One worry is that the software will find its way into the hands of criminals.
The current predicament is partly the result of decisions by Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion (producer of the BlackBerry) to open their phones to outside application-software developers, which created the opening for spyware. Antivirus and security programs developed for computers require too much processing power, even for smart phones. Although security programs are available for phones, by and large users haven't given the threat much thought. If the spying keeps spreading, that may change soon.
© 2009
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