In the digital age, consumers increasingly demand a fast, seamless, hassle-free checkout process. As technology evolves to meet that demand, some fear that a near-instant purchase may also mean dangerous, costly oversights in consumer data protection.
One Missouri lawmaker is considering legislation that offers an old-school solution to high-tech payments. Reports say the state’s Representative Joshua Peters (D) introduced a bill Wednesday (Jan. 20) that would require shoppers to present their photo ID whenever paying for products with digital wallets like Apple Pay.
Local reports say Peters wants merchants to keep buyers’ ID numbers on file when they pay with a digital wallet; doing so, the lawmaker argues, will protect stores from being held liable for fraudulent purchases.
But critics of the proposal say such a mandate would be “overkill,” a law “that would require shoppers to pull out a photo ID and prove they truly are who they say they are before they will be allowed to continue with the process of scanning their unique fingerprint on a high-tech piece of equipment designed specifically for the purpose of verifying their identity without the need for a physical identification card,” according to 9to5 Mac.
In other words, digital wallets like Apple Pay are designed with consumer privacy and anti-data theft in mind; these technologies exist so consumers can expedite the checkout process – without having to pull out their photo IDs.
But security experts may agree with Peters’s proposal. A recent Kaspersky report found that Apple Pay will be hackers’ prime target as the technology gains more foothold in the digital wallet market. And with the recent string of massive consumer data hacks on retailers like Target and Home Depot, experts warn that the cost of such privacy protection shortfalls – already in the tens of millions of dollars for financial service providers – will likely continue to rise.
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