So-called radio frequency identification tags and readers – often in the form of contactless cards – are sometimes found in ski lifts, in public transport systems and on many of the world’s toll roads. But privacy and convenience questions have made them less widespread than their creators had hoped.
Now, two developments hold the potential to introduce this technology into most people’s lives. One is a standard called near-field communication, or NFC. The other is the marriage of this technology to the ubiquitous mobile phone.
If NFC’s backers – which include heavyweights like Sony, Motorola, Nokia, MasterCard and Visa – are successful, people will use their cellphones as electronic wallets to make purchases and to buy tickets on trains and in movie theaters and to receive additional information from billboards and other points.
I suppose this presents no greater danger than a waiter with a credit card reader inside his jacket, anyway. The potential certainly is real; but, the last thing I’d wish for — is more people carrying their cellphones into restaurants and theatres. Golly gee, they saved 20 seconds on a transaction.
Who pays for the call?
This would be cool, if it manages to be a convenience for the consumer and non-invasive. In other words, I don’t want automated telemarketers calling me whenever I walk past a store. And yeah, who pays for the airtime?
We have all seen what happens when you give the user the option to swipe their own credit card in the Grocery Store.
If this goes thru, you will have most people hand their cell phone to the waiter to complete the transaction. As te user will curtainly have no idea what to do if they recieve a call at the same time they are trying to buy something.
We will hand over all our information, the same way we do now.
Most credit card transaction under 25 dollars don’t require a signature – I just sign “Stolen Card” in a nice script. No one notices, No one Cares.
The credit card companies make to much money by keeping the information in the clear, otherwise it would be taken care of already.