FTC to Scrutinize Contactless Payment Technology

coondoggie writes to tell us that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be taking a look at contactless payment systems and the consumer protection issue surrounding them. "RFID technology provides obvious benefits, the FTC said. For example, the ability of producers using RFID to track exactly where in the supply chain their products are and by which retailer they were ultimately sold to a consumer has the potential to make product recalls more effective. However, there also may be costs regarding consumers' individual privacy rights associated with it."

Comments

What I don't get...

[tgd]

Is why we're once again bucking the trend and doing something different?

A lot of the world is using chip+PIN, which while not perfect is still drastically better than what we've got, can't be sniffed from remote, is much more of a distinct action and has a huge install base.

I'm not sure what this obsession with RFID payment methods is.

We are too lazy..

[Junta]

When doing anything that requires something to physically touch is considered too much work and we'd rather risk our financial info being wirelessly transmitted than have to swipe a card, we have serious issues.

And all this about inventory tracking is kind of an orthogonal point to payment isn't it? I for one certainly don't mind them being able to wave rfid wands around a vague area and account for an entire big package without having to scan a unique barcode for every item. I wouldn't mind a checkout system where they didn't even need to find the upc (or for that matter, could scan the whole cart in one go instead of item by item). However, I don't see the big benefit of avoiding physical contact with my payment device (which I wish was more technically secure than my mag-stripe credit card).