Slashdot Mirror
Canadian Banks Rushing To Offer Virtual Wallets
silentbrad writes with this quote from the Globe and Mail:"Canada's big banks are preparing to launch 'virtual wallets' as early as this fall that will allow consumers to digitally consolidate their credit and debit cards from any financial institution, and use them to make purchases online and through their cellphones at cash registers. It is being called the biggest change to the way consumers pay for goods in Canada in decades, and for the banks moving quickly into this space, the strategy is about keeping ownership of the vast and potentially lucrative stores of data that are involved in transactions. ... The majority of the banking sector is expected to follow suit in the next year or so, with each financial institution relying on the concept of 'aliases,' where a password lets consumers access their payment cards, but protects personal information from being passed to the merchant. ... Retailers can use the information contained in transactions, stripped of details that violate privacy laws, to tailor offerings or promotions to consumers. And the banks figure they can build a new business from that new world. Location data on phones can help neighborhood stores connect with customers in the area, while transaction data online can give insight into consumer habits and tastes."
This is great news. Now I no longer have to wait to lose my physical wallet to go through the agony of canceling and replacing credit cards. It can be lost more efficiently in the cloud.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
FTFA:
Retailers can use the information contained in transactions, stripped of details that violate privacy laws, to tailor offerings or promotions to consumers. And the banks figure they can build a new business from that new world. Location data on phones can help neighbourhood stores connect with customers in the area, while transaction data online can give insight into consumer habits and tastes.
The title of the article should read:
"Canadian banks rushing to offer your private buying history to the highest bidder"
Did anyone else read the entire summary and still have no idea WTF it's talking about? Something to do with aliasing personal information to merchants... so they can target advertising... when the merchant has all the customer's personal data out of necessity anyway...?
Canadians already primarily use a card system called Interac to make most purchases; granted, it's been a while since I lived in Canada but even three years ago it was very rare for me to make a cash purchase.
Reading TFA it seems like it's talking about cell phone wireless payments, and banks selling your demographic information to retailers. Frankly, if my bank did that, I'd opt out of it immediately, and potentially change banks if they didn't allow the opt-out. This suggests to me that within five years there will be no bank that will allow opting-out unless it's protected by law.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Canadian bills aren't all green now. $5 is blue, $10 is purple, $20 is green, $50 is red, $100 is brown, $1000 is pink (I believe, been a while since I've seen one) and when we used to have a $1 it was dark green and $2 was orange
makes it much easier to tell denominations at a glance when looking through your wallet.
...and when we used to have a $1 it was dark green and $2 was orange
Actually, the $1 was black and yellow on front, and green on the reverse.
The $2 bill was considered to be "terracotta" coloured, and was more reddish-brown than orange.
Yaz