Google Wallet: the End of Anonymous Shopping 253
jfruhlinger writes "Google today announced Google Wallet, an NFC-based payment system that will allow people to pay for purchases just by waving their phone across a reader. It's the beginning of a future where commercial transactions are 'frictionless' and convenient — but it's a future where every transaction can be tracked and data-mined, as Dan Tynan points out. Stores can user information about your Doritos purchases to rearrange their wares; Google could push coupons via its new Google Offers service; your health insurance company might be interested in your sodium intake."
How the hell is this different from credit cards? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hyperbole (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, credit cards, debit cards and checks claim prior art.
Re:Hyperbole (Score:4, Insightful)
Fine until everyone requires some tracked form of payment. Try using cash to buy an airline ticket, for example. See you when you get out.
Re:Hyperbole (Score:3, Insightful)
I was going to mod you Underrated, but instead I'd just like to say that whoever wrote the article is dumb as shit. And not that high grade shit.
Re:How the hell is this different from credit card (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, you see, when it comes to patents, people are offended that adding but it's online or but with a computer or but in the cloud makes something qualify as a new idea.
When it comes to things that could involve gathering data, adding but now Google is doing it makes it new and outrageous.
Re:How the hell is this different from credit card (Score:5, Insightful)
This kind of system offers significantly better security than CCs.
If the system is designed well the stores you visit will never see your financial information (and never have an opportunity to lose it). Encrypt the account information on the phone with a psuedo-random number that is generated every 60s (along the lines of SecureID), send the encrypted data to the store, the store forwards that encrypted string, along with the amount of purchase to the payment server, the server responds back with a simple 'approve/deny' response. This also applies to card skimmers, if someone skims your account details, they're valid for 60s or less.
The system can also be password protected, or even biometricly protected if you really wanted to make things easy; which is better than I've heard of CCs being able to do.
Re:Hyperbole (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't live in Schaumburg anymore. So that's terribly relevant information for someone trying to sell me something when I live two states away now. ;)
That would be only marginally true. You are interested in these cars, and you even had one - so this bit of information is quite valuable, especially if it can be datamined without the expense of owning dealerships and keeping records.
And that would be completely untrue with regard to protecting your anonymity - if, for example, the government is after you. The IP address is history; probably nobody can figure out who it was given to 7 years ago. However Schaumburg is a small town (about 75,000?) - how many cars of this make and model were sold to residents there? Probably not more than a few; and these records stay forever.
I'm probably not sufficiently paranoid to worry too much about such things (and obviously neither are you) - but from purely technical point of view a lot of information was leaked, and that information can be exploited by anyone who cares. This is something to be concerned about if you discuss your ownership of expensive cars, firearms, or other stuff that is in high demand. You don't want to reveal ownership and location at the same time.
Re:BitCoin (Score:1, Insightful)
What's so great about being backed by ChairSatan Ben Bernanke? If he's the best backup you've got, give me BitCoin all day, any day.