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Paying Through Facebook May Become a Reality
SmartAboutThings writes "A recent story at the NY Times talks about a possible partnership between Facebook and mobile billing company Bango. 'You might want to buy a game or concert tickets or an astrological forecast. Careful where your fingers go. One tap, and a charge will show up on your phone bill. "Frictionless" payment is how Bango puts it. Bango will get a cut of each click; it declined to say how much.' Assuming this doesn't remain a rumor, then quite soon we might be able to pay for goods using our Facebook accounts. Could this help Facebook regain the lost trust for their investors?"
Lost trust? Shirley you jest!
Never had any...
note to self - never ever ever download the facebook app for my phone.
Great. Then FB will broadcast to all your friends what it is you just bought. Glad I left over a year ago.
Proverbs 21:19
Yeah, like I REALLY want Facebook to have access to my buying habits too.
Oh well, I am just an old fart who tried Facebook for a year and then left because there's a limit to how much I will bend over and deliver all my personal life to some company.
I confidently predict that a blissful union of the non-sleaziness of mobile billing, the upstanding nature of Facebook, and the excellent security of consumer client devices will lead to excellent customer satisfaction and only the most minimal of fraud and billing disputes.
They should gain the trust of their users first if they really want to see things like this pick up steam IMO
Yet another reason why I don't trust Facebook, Google, or any other of these sorts of company with my mobile number.
If I want to buy something I'll take out my credit card tap in all the numbers and buy it. At least that way I *know* that I'm buying something, and I'm not nastily surprised when my mobile bill is huge after hitting the wrong button when my touchscreen plays up.
Humans make mistakes all the time. That's why making it really, really easy to pay for things online is a bad idea. What to speak of the problems a malicious takeover of ones system produces, very easy online payments will make many, many people pine for doing things the hard way.
No no no... oooh - I look forward to taking to your to Facebook-Google-TacoBell
If you want one, chances are you aren't very good at dealing with finances or life in general.
I give it 3 months. Between click fraud, deceptive ads that trick you into accidentally buying stuff and hackers, people will soon be scared to even log into their facebook accounts.
Pick ANY other fast food joint! Taco Bell is tasty!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Only if they can gain the trust of a fair amount of users.
I use Facebook, but under a fake name with as little personal information as I can give them. There's no way I'd trust Facebook with financial information.
I've no doubt that at least some users will think this is grand, but there's no way I'd ever use this. Their level of trust from me is arms length and suspicious.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Hey! p-niiice just bought a FLESHLIGHT from FLASHLIGHT.COM! p-niiice recommends you buy a FLESHLIGHT from FLESHLIGHT.com too!
This is one of the reasons I have never acquired any of the bonus cards of the supermarkets.
The goal here is to make payment so easy that you don't have the time to reconsider the purchase decision while, for instance, you're pulling out your wallet to get out your credit card. These are people that firmly believe that the way to make the world a better place is to make it easier for them to buy stuff whether or not it is of any use to them whatsoever. I know, because I've attended one of the major conferences in the industry and met some of these folks and listened to their talks about this sort of technology.
And of course, what makes it easy for a legitimate business to take your money also makes it easy for a not-so-legitimate business or a thief to take your money.
I am officially gone from
bitcoin?
*ducks*
The last thing we need is for Facebook to trick people into making it powerful in a whole new way.
I said so.
facebook loses even more users.
IMHO, that is just one evil, evil, empire. I hate to sound like a conspirator, but I wouldn't put it past a greater power, rather than Zergabuger, being responsible for knowing the intimate details of your life.
It looks like Facebook will turn itself into the premier porn payment provider for the, er, networking executive on the move.
The only friction they are removing is by greasing the path from my pocket to their pocket.
And I'd rather there BE friction there, since it's my pocketbook on the line.
Users? Fuck users!
From the threads on 4chan, it's apparent lots of people are paying through Facebook already.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Gaining trust of investors on the long run will also require keeping their customers trust. We have payments through facebook, and several other channels too. Facebook does not bring a lot of money, has a very high rate of fraud, is difficult to predict and causes a lot of complaints.
currently if a parent buys something via facebook and pays by creditcard, it will store the card details, and use it without further authorization in the future. We get a lot of complaints on services targetted at teenagers, and have no way to control it. I would not be surprised if a lot of services that don't really need to be on fb canvas to prosper will start dropping out in the future...
Because I have had a "3rd party billing" block on my AT&T account for years. and I suggest everyone do the same. it keeps scumbag companies like bango from being able to charge your Mobile phone number for anything.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
as long as this means that i can get PAID this way. Heck i have a prepaid Amex i could link to this.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Paying Through Facebook May Become a Reality
should read
Paying Through Facebook May Become Possible
FTFY... it will never be my reality.
load "$",8,1
But.... Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the Franchise Wars. Now all restaurants are Taco Bell.
I believe that they have ably demonstrated that they do not need the trust of their users.
-
Only if they can gain the trust of a fair amount of users.
I use Facebook, but under a fake name with as little personal information as I can give them. There's no way I'd trust Facebook with financial information.
I've no doubt that at least some users will think this is grand, but there's no way I'd ever use this. Their level of trust from me is arms length and suspicious.
I feel the same way that you do. That's why I have never once used Facebook.
To me trust is more important than any convenience they could offer. So for me this is pretty clear-cut, no cloak&dagger shit necessary.
Methinks you are not really so principled at all, so you're trying to have it both ways. Especially for a trust issue?! Why would you tolerate any interaction from an entity you rightly distrust? A competency issue would be easier to understand...
This is just part of FB' continous mutations. Remember what FB was like before twitter became popular? Then they "twitterised" it, added news feeds, timeline and other nonsense. However now post IPO the pressure is on and people are realising that FBs model for making money does n't make any sense, so you get crazyness like buying instagram, constant talk about making money from mobile and now payments.
In the end FB will probably get into a feedback loop where they have to become more and more obnoixious chasing revenue from users whilst turning off those users at the same time.
I dont think FB will die because ultimately they will always have their core users but in the same way that Myspace does.
Sorry past-people, but here in the future we communicate through pure thought alone. We have no need for primitive little plastic communication devices.
Get off my floating lawn.
I use a fake name too, but they know who my friends are, they know what my friends like and they know how I look like if my friends tag me on their pictures. Pretty sure that it's not hard to find my identity online.
Just Fuck No.
No Facebook you are not getting any payment information from me.
Facebook is stealing our data, often secretly from unrelated websites running the API in the background, and selling it to who knows whom. People should not trust facebook at all, especially not with any kind of financial detail. These guys are unethical and borderline illegal!
And well, Once people catch on to open source things like Diasporia, facebook is toast.
Why the fuck do I need to pay through Facebook? What benefit do I get from using them over my existing Visa or, heaven forbid, actual cash? At least there are established laws in place for liability and credit card fraud.
And everybody is going to embrace "Facebook as a porn payment", because there's no way FB will ever mine the data they gathered through your sales for marketing and advertising purpose~ They've always respected users privacy~ </sarcasm>
Seriously? I think you're right. Idiots will flock to it to buy lots of stupid stuff where privacy and anonymity would have been preferred.
FB's marketing department will mine this data like hell.
Cue in embarrassing target advertising and suggestions.
(Ob Penny Arcade ref)
Or even malicious apps:
- we've currently reached the point where "click jacking" on FB is now considered by lambda users as "just happening" and part of the background noise. Its accepted to be just part of the landscape, the way SPAM is for e-mails (before massive efforts in filtering and bot-net shutdowns managed to curb it a little bit).
(Am I the last human being on FB who doesn't fall for the "click on the moving 'play' button to prove you're not a bot in order to see teh lezboz video?!?)
- it's pretty much easy to get people to friend a page or add an application through click jacking.
- a malicious application could then exploit the gained privilege to access user info (Through advanced access with regular FB API granted during the click jacking, or through exploits. That has already happened before).
- mine and infer porn habits from the data.
- blackmail/scam/shame the poor victim.
Next step for Facebook:
Now they just need to buy a few websites like "Adult Finder", cross reference their databases, and they'll become the newest biggest pimping infrastructure on the net since Craiglist had to close its adult section.
And the blackmailer/scammer need to start collaborating with divorce-specialised lawyers.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Average Joe doesn't care about "trust" or "security", because he doesn't even know what those things are.
Until the very last moment when it comes back into his face. But then it's already to late.
That's why they click yes on "Run free-chicks.exe as admin?".
(NB: FTFY)
Yup. Just have a look at how much click jacking has become rampant lately.
And the joe-six-pack reaction when he notice that the pseudo-'video player' has auto-liked itself and auto-plublished itself on the wall, is just "LOL". Doesn't even bother do delete the post, and unfriend/unlike the page or block the app.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Isn't that why your wive(s) are on FB? Gettin' Bangoed by other men...
I have perfectly good credit card that gives me perfectly good rewards to the point that I run my whole life through it and get nearly a thousand dollars a year in free stuff. It's also with a bank that is S.H.I.E.L.D.-like when it comes to detecting and snuffing out unauthorized shit. So why do I want some other middle man to get in the way again?
I'm genuinely interested in what your sister needs a fleshlight for? From an anatomic point of view...
Or to you imply that the FB "me too"-ers are going to keep their habit of following any trend and/or installing/buying the same apps as everyone else, even if doesn't make any anatomical sense.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
A recent edition of IEEE Spectrum (front page title was "The last days of cash") has several articles about stuff like this. The article above is sortof useless, but the ones in the magazine were pretty good and highly recommended.
Sounds like the potential for a good fucking, all right, but not necessarily the kind you want.
Payment using Facebook? I don't think so. Why not be done with it and make barcode tattoos on foreheads mandatory?
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
Pure marketting demographics research, for which they were willing to 'pay' me in discounts on food and gas purchases at the supermarket-owned gas station at the end of their parking lot. That's what those bonus cards are for
That's what you think. But the amount of data and how they can mine it is scary.
See the embarrassing anecdote about Target, and the 'statistically pregnant daughter' as an example. (And remember: all this was done with completely legally acquired data. No snooping involved. Just the power of statistics).
And what did Target learn from this story? That they should stop mining data in such a way that provide embarrassing insight in the private life of individuals? No.
They learned that next time they have to hide the relevant targeted add among innocuous looking ads. So that the "victim" doesn't freak out, realising that their private life doesn't have any secret for them.
And as said, this was done by a company which completely abides to the various privacy law. No violation in data gathering laws, only maths tricks.
Now imagine what could a company like Facebook do, which was caught red handed changing the default privacy settings without user consent, just because they updated their policies.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
And meanwhile, Facebook's marketing/datamining/advertising department just had a massive orgasm at the though of the new possibilities.
Then, all the writers-of-crappy-apps/scammers/clickjacker/hacker/exploiters started a big circle jerk while thinking of *their* expanded possibilities.
After which all the lawyers (with specialities as diverse as divorce, etc.) all quickly ran buying more lube (and bigger strap-ons) just to be ready.
And I see scareware/let-me-help-you-scrub-your-profile/heal-your-online-reputation people approaching on the horizon.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Didn't amazon patent the 1-touch buying system?
So silky smooth, you don't even notice you're being financially raped.
Bango (AIM: BGO), announced on 21 May 2012 that Peter Saxton, Bango’s CFO, had notified the Board of Bango of his wish to retire, on a schedule to be agreed with the Board that will ensure an orderly hand-over to a new CFO. This process is ongoing and is expected to be completed by November 2012.
(later)
Peter Saxton, Chief Financial Officer at mobile web payments firm Bango, has sold 386,701 shares on 23 August 2012 at a price of 179.50p per share.
"Frictionless" payment is how Bango puts it.
Can we all agree that whenever a corporation uses the term "frictionless payment," we simply replace it with "greasing the consumer's wallet." People tend to think of friction as a negative term, but do you really find that you're having trouble getting your card or the linen out of your wallet because there's simply too much friction? If someone offered a "frictionless wallet" from which money slips out effortlessly, would you buy it? Some things, like brakes and wallets, are useless without friction.
I once worked with several of the megabanks, and I remember a marketing guy trying to communicate what the banks wanted out of the software I was working on, telling me that consumers don't want to enter their credit card information, or even authorize its use, to make purchases online. I told him consumers need a measure of control over their money... they need to be sure that nothing is being charged to their cards unless they authorize it. He explained that the banks don't like it when consumers nitpick their spending like that... they want consumers to spend money without paying attention to the details, because they won't notice when the bank slips in a small, unexplained service charge, or when they've gotten themselves into debt that the bank can profit off of (the bank's task is to figure out how far to let them go before they're unable to pay). Whenever a bank/financial institution talks about making it easier to get money out of your wallet, you need to be on guard.
Bango will get a cut of each click; it declined to say how much.'
I see Facebook has a loophole here. "Technically, none of our mobile customers clicked anything, as they all use touchscreen devices which lack the capacity to emit a clicking sound or click-like action. They used the tapping method, but since the contract says Bango only gets paid for 'clicks,' Bango get nothing."
I don't even trust them with my personal information, why in the world would I give them my financial information?
Fortunately, the deal did not go through. Apparently, the lawyer who was supposed to oversee it scratched his nose at a charity auction and inadvertantly paied $10,450,000 for a screwdriver with some old chewing gum on the handle. Apparently it was a celebrity item. The lawyer, though a man of considerable means, could not come up with the cash and was detained for some time until he could convince them there was no intent of fraud. He is, however, permanently banned from the auction venue and as I said, quite late for the meeting that was supposed to close the deal.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I prefer to keep the social and financial aspects of my life separated...
... the eternal startup. It used to be a service to make your phone number redirect to your website through their registry (which was a bloody silly idea around the time of the first dotcom boom). Then it moved on to mobile payments for phone porn, in the days when Series 40 sized screens were all the rage. Maybe it's found a way to make its millions?
Look, PayPal are one of the biggest ass**** companies around (http://www.paypalsucks.com) ... so is Facebook. This can't be a coincidence that they are both looking to play in the same space, can it?