Google Wallet: the End of Anonymous Shopping

jfruhlinger writes "Google today announced Google Wallet, an NFC-based payment system that will allow people to pay for purchases just by waving their phone across a reader. It's the beginning of a future where commercial transactions are 'frictionless' and convenient — but it's a future where every transaction can be tracked and data-mined, as Dan Tynan points out. Stores can user information about your Doritos purchases to rearrange their wares; Google could push coupons via its new Google Offers service; your health insurance company might be interested in your sodium intake."

Comments

Hyperbole

[Sonny Yatsen]

C'mon, Google Wallet is the end of anonymous shopping? No, if you don't want to be tracked by Google Wallet, just don't use Google Wallet. If you want to stay anonymous, use cash.

And wear a hat.
And gloves.
And a fake mustache.

Re:Hyperbole

[pushing-robot]

Also, credit cards, debit cards and checks claim prior art.

Re:Hyperbole

[Intron]

Fine until everyone requires some tracked form of payment. Try using cash to buy an airline ticket, for example. See you when you get out.

Re:Hyperbole

[pushing-robot]

Um, OK.

Re:Hyperbole

[Stunning Tard]

BitCoins! I have no idea what they have to do with the current discussion, just throwing it out there.

Re:Hyperbole

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck that, they'll just go to Experian.

Experian? Who are they? Yeah, if you don't know about Experian, you don't understand privacy today.

See, Experian is, to the public, a credit rating agency. So they just so happen to collect all your credit card data, loan information, and so forth. Fancy that!

But it gets better.

See, they also collect all that loyalty card data that you believe is so difficult to acquire... among *many* other things. They then correlate the data up, package it, and sell it to whomever wants it. Traditionally this has been direct mail marketers, among other things.

And the breadth of the metrics available? Astounding. People who purchase that data know if your fucking car lease is about to expire or not.

So trust me when I say, Google Wallet is nothing. The privacy horse ran out of the barn a long long time ago.

Re:Hyperbole

[tftp]

It's not like I can Google "nschubach bought ? on Tuesday" and get a full report.

Why don't you try that query yourself? I did. Congratulations with your purchase of '04 Silver RX8 - G/T Package - 6 Spd. MT in June 2004. It was probably nice weather then in Schaumburg, IL. Is there anything else you'd like to announce to the whole world? Google doesn't need to do a thing here, other than to collect what people willingly reveal about themselves.

With regard to my own username, it is short and common (as in RFC 783). Besides, I don't reuse usernames. The only way one can associate my posts across multiple sites is by writing style.

Re:Hyperbole

[tftp]

I don't live in Schaumburg anymore. So that's terribly relevant information for someone trying to sell me something when I live two states away now. ;)

That would be only marginally true. You are interested in these cars, and you even had one - so this bit of information is quite valuable, especially if it can be datamined without the expense of owning dealerships and keeping records.

And that would be completely untrue with regard to protecting your anonymity - if, for example, the government is after you. The IP address is history; probably nobody can figure out who it was given to 7 years ago. However Schaumburg is a small town (about 75,000?) - how many cars of this make and model were sold to residents there? Probably not more than a few; and these records stay forever.

I'm probably not sufficiently paranoid to worry too much about such things (and obviously neither are you) - but from purely technical point of view a lot of information was leaked, and that information can be exploited by anyone who cares. This is something to be concerned about if you discuss your ownership of expensive cars, firearms, or other stuff that is in high demand. You don't want to reveal ownership and location at the same time.

How the hell is this different from credit cards?

[Kuukai]

Aside from being run by Google?

Re:How the hell is this different from credit card

[DogDude]

It costs the merchant more. It won't be implemented widely in the US, considering that Google's fees are higher than American Express.

Re:How the hell is this different from credit card

[MozeeToby]

This kind of system offers significantly better security than CCs.

If the system is designed well the stores you visit will never see your financial information (and never have an opportunity to lose it). Encrypt the account information on the phone with a psuedo-random number that is generated every 60s (along the lines of SecureID), send the encrypted data to the store, the store forwards that encrypted string, along with the amount of purchase to the payment server, the server responds back with a simple 'approve/deny' response. This also applies to card skimmers, if someone skims your account details, they're valid for 60s or less.

The system can also be password protected, or even biometricly protected if you really wanted to make things easy; which is better than I've heard of CCs being able to do.

In the off chance someone wants facts

[geekoid]

http://www.google.com/wallet/how-it-works-security.html