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The Timex Speedpass Watch
RedWolves2 writes "Timex Corporation is developing a watch which incorporates Speedpass technology embedded into it. McDonalds has also partnered with Speedpass with 400 stores in the Chicago area that accept speedpass. Now you can order a value meal like this "You will serve me a Big Mac Meal with a Coke!" (While waving your hand like a Jedi Knight using the Jedi Mind trick)."
Why would anyone use this technology when micropayments and the like can be done using your mobile phone using reverse billing now (you punch in a code to your mobile and an amount gets added to your phone account) and in the future there is bluetooth.
This proprietary, system will shortly float off into oblivion like all the rest.
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If one of these things ever gets stolen, there is literally no way to trace where it is.
No signatures... nothing.
With a credit card there are a few more layers of security.
First, it needs to be swiped (can't be read from a distance...which can be potentially bad)
Second, you need to sign for it
Third, many credit cards have the option of a picture...
Pretty scary.
-kwishot
Another scary thing would be if you lost this thing. Where I live there are consumer credit laws which basically say if there is any fraud, the consumer is not liable. This is for all electronic banking credit and debit cards. Now I bet that this dongle would leave you high and dry when some idiot went crazy buying fuel and burgers on your tab.
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He insisted that people (who are idiots, of course) value convenience over security. They want to be able to buy without giving a conscious thought to their purchases... and guess what? That just happens to be what corporate America wants too! You make so many mindless little purchases in a day, waving your arms about and clicking around the Web, you don't know what you bought.
The beauty of the system is that it takes far more effort to dispute/return a purchase than it took to make the purchase, so for most people it's just not worth their time. Meanwhile, the corporate fat cats rake in the dough.
The article says watches with this technology will only cost a few dollars more than watches without it. If it was really in the customer's best interest and not the corporation's, they would be charging $25 to $50 more for these watches. They would probably not have raised the price at all, but for $5 more people will feel like they're getting the "top of the line" model and be enticed to try the technology. I know I won't be buying one... for the consumer's sake, I hope it's discovered that this technology causes cancer or something.
Browsing on Speedpass' own website, it appears that there is NO security other than needing physical possession of the "speedpass" device. (Their "Question and Answer" section specifically states that you don't even need to type in a PIN number)
So...who's going to be the first to build a directional "Pringles(tm) Can" antenna to record SpeedPass exchanges, and publish schematics for programmable speedpass "emulators"?
The only way I'd consider bothering with this is if I could get a "buffer" account to tie it to, and dump, say, $50 in it at a time from my real account (so that if my "Speedpass" gets stolen and is used before I have a chance to transfer the money back out of the "buffer" account, I wouldn't be able to lose more that $50 or so...) Tying it to a Credit Card just seems completely insane to me, especially since other posts say that YOU are liable for unauthorized charges on the thing...
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It would make more sense for McD's to start taking debit/credit cards first.
I never have cash on hand, and it's wasteful to pull out $20, along with the usual ATM fee just to buy a couple of cheeseburgers.