Written by Mark Rasch for Storefront Backtalk
Attorney Mark D. Rasch is the former head of the U.S. Justice Department’s computer crime unit and today serves as Director of Cybersecurity and Privacy Consulting at CSC in Virginia.
Last month, Apple contained yet another patent for its iWallet payment system. As Apple tries to position itself as the ultimate payment processor, the competition is heating up for which entity, and which technology, will be responsible for ensuring that retailers get paid. Although these choices may ultimately prove useful for both consumers and retailers, they present new privacy challenges to all participants. As a result, Apple, PayPal and a host of other payment processors may find the need to hire new teams of lawyers to help them comply with the inevitable subpoenas and discovery requests that will befall them.
Lots of money can be made in helping retailers process payments and making it more convenient and easier for consumers to buy things. Apple’s iWallet technology, like many other existing or proposed technologies, is designed to enable consumers to make purchases both online and in brick-and-mortar stores quickly, easily and efficiently.
Under one possible configuration of the technology, a consumer selecting items at retail location would use an NFC-equipped cell phone linked to an iTunes account to purchase those items. The NFC device would communicate with the retailer, authenticate the user and validate purchase. The purchase would then be linked to the consumer’s iTunes account, the same account that person uses to buy music, video and Web applications. Because the iTunes account is linked to a store credit card, the actual financial transaction would be between the consumer’s linked credit card and the retailer
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Read more: http://storefrontbacktalk.com/securityfraud/apple-paypal-enjoy-unchartered-mobile-payment-legal-issues/#ixzz1rpqryfnm
