October 28, 2014

Apple Pay Perturbs Prying Personal Prospectors

Law enforcement agencies and retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy balk at Apple's operating system and payment app privacy efforts. Larry Greenemeier reports

By Larry Greenemeier

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Apple’s efforts to improve your digital privacy have met with surprisingly strong resistance from companies and agencies that want your info. Seems that confidentiality hampers efforts to track buying habits—and bad guys.

The controversy revolves around what’s called Apple Pay. By employing the newly released payment system, users of the latest i-devices can now buy things without flashing a credit or debit card. Google’s offered a similar digital wallet for years, but Apple’s version will not collect transaction info or store card numbers on your device.

Many retailers have bought in to Apple Pay. It promises to be more secure than plastic, and companies such as Staples need all the help they can get when it comes to data security. But other outfits, including retail giants Walmart and Best Buy, have rejected the Apple Pay technology because it prevents them from tracking customer-purchasing preferences. They’re working on a rival smartphone payment app called CurrentC.

Meanwhile, law enforcement has demonized Apple over iOS 8, which passcode-protects photos and other info on the newest iPhones and iPads. Apple doesn’t store the passcodes, so it cannot turn them over even if there’s a warrant. Google will offer similar device encryption in an upcoming version of Android.

Apple exerted its will on the music and publishing industries. We’ll see if the company has the clout to now move the needle on privacy.

—Larry Greenemeier

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]

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