@anonymous
"Don't know about others, but NFC and other similar technologies (including the UK's Oyster Card and the Netherland's OV Chipkaart) make me very uncomfortable. Sure, they have many advantages, but personally I see a lot of issues as well:
- Ability to track one's movements quite easily. Now it's just public transport, but RFID readers will become more and more ubiquitous. Yes, I know I can already be tracked by mobile phone, by credit card purchases and other things. All the more reasons not to get an extra tracking system on me - I'm running out of tinfoil."
Well, they can track your movement by bluetooth ID or SIM card ID if your pohone is on anyway. Seleral malls already do that, BUT, that does NOT give them access to IDENTITY information about you. They know a person with SIM ID 123456789 walked into a store, and stood near a cash register for 5 minutes, and maybe they picked up an RFID session initiation, however, wether you made a purchase, processed a return, and especially who you are, are all secret to them. The cash register knows who you are, but that's information you expect a retailer to have anyway, and they'd be required to have on a credit purchase, so who cares. Nobody else can noop other than to track your device noxt time it returns, and how often, but they ALREADY GET THAT from your SIM card, so an additional techn ology, especially one limited to transmit range in INCHES is irrelevent.
"- Open to fraud. I'm not talking about fraudulent recharges of transport cards - it's the transport companies' problem, I couldn't care less. What I'm worried about are concealed devices which can trick my card or my phone into making payments without my knowledge. You know, like someone with a reader hidden in a plain bag, collecting payments from anyone in the vicinity. And before someone jumps to say that it's not possible, remember that the Oyster and OV cards were marketed as being safe too."
Um, dumbass, you have to type in a pin, or on screen comit to the transaction, not to mention, opening the app that allows the incoming request from the cash register in the first place. They can NOT automatically process a transaction without you doing something on the screen. Next, since it;s a device-to-device secure communication, another device (which would have to be within inches) can't piggy back and replicate that transaction without it being obvious to Visa later. The device only communicates with the cash register, which still has to process a validated payment... The issue with the older tech was it could simply be scanned, this requires an interactive response from the user to initiate a transaction...
"- Difficult to reverse wrong charges. What if the reader in the bus or in the shop accidentally charges me twice or charges the wrong amount? With cash I can just get my money back, but how do you do it with an NFC device?"
It;s still Visa on the back end. You're going to see both on the cash register, and on your phone screen, payment ammount confirmation. It's no more at risk of sending a bad transaction as swiping a regular card. An NFC device is simply an electronic connection to another existing credit source. Have you never called Visa or your bank to dispute a transaction? Also, you have a receipt in your hand from the electronic transaction, if it went through wrong, do a return while you;re standing there!
"Because of these and of the dozens of other exploits that are bound to be invented, I prefer to make my money transactions in a more physical or at least visible form - cash, credit card etc. They're not perfect either, but at least I have a little more control over them."
Cash is easy to lose, easy to have stolen, has no inherent security at all, and is easily mis-counted (and extremely difficult to dispute unless caught instantly, and even then requires a full till countdown to confirm the issue). Credit cards are EXACTLY as secure as NFD, since it;s STILL a credit card. Actually, since noone gets to see the account number in full, noone holds the card in their hands to run through a hidden reader under the counter, it;s even MORE secure. Checks are easily stolen and used, and most banks offer little or no protection from bad checks and can take weeks to return the money to your account. I've been a retailer and had a contract to accept credit cards. I've also as a consumer disputed numerous charges, especially from online retailers, and it;s never taken more than a few hours to have things corrected (and about 20-30 minutes of that on a phone, the rest simply wwaiting for a confirmation reply call).