Slashdot Mirror
Apple Pay For the UK
An anonymous reader writes about when Apple Pay will be available in the UK. "A major UK bank's concern over data collected by Apple Pay is reportedly stalling negotiations to launch the mobile payments service in the country by 'the first half of 2015.' The Telegraph reports that 'at least one' of the UK's biggest banks is 'uncomfortable with the amount of personal and financial information Apple wants to collect about its customers.' Apple has been adamant about its approach to collecting users' data via Apple Pay. 'We are not in the business of collecting your data,' said Apple exec Eddy Cue when introducing the service in September. 'So when you go to a physical business and use Apple Pay, Apple doesn't know what you bought, where you bought it, or how much you paid for it. The transaction is between you, the merchant, and your bank.'"
Who says they do? We're sitting staring at an article in which a reporter says that someone else says that a bank says that Apple wants your data.
The reporter has an ulterior motive in that they want to sell newspapers and keep their job
The someone else has an ulterior motive in that they want to be paid for their story from the newspaper
The bank has an ulterior motive in that they don't want Apple getting a foot hold in the banking sector, so they will try to attack Apple's core message.
Until someone actually says what this data that Apple is supposedly collecting is, and shows where and how they're collecting it, I call bullshit.
Maybe the issue is really that the BANK wants that data and Apple isn't giving it to them ...
"The Telegraph reports that 'at least one' of the UK's biggest banks is 'uncomfortable with the amount of personal and financial information Apple wants to collect about its customers'."
The bank is clearly appealed at the thought of someone else having as much customer data as the bank itself. The banks use this data to target their other products (credit cards, mortgages) at the right customers and clearly don't want Apple getting ideas about setting up their own financial products and having the data to do so profitably.
What the banks are really concerned about is not that Apple is collecting information, but that their customers will realize the opposite -- that using Apple pay is far more secure than other systems. If people start waking up to the fact that all of the information merchants are getting from credit cards can and will be used against them; then systems like Apple Pay are going to destroy the status quo.
What better way to try to stop this then by spouting a Big Lie? The banks are saying that they are worried that Apple is collecting too much information. If they can seed doubt into customers for long enough, then they may succeed in killing it.
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
."It is understood the bank is uncomfortable with the amount of personal and financial information Apple wants to collect about its customers. "
Do realize that they could be uncomfortable because the amount of data Apple wants to collect is greatly REDUCED from what credit cards collect - the statement does not state which direction of the amount goes.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My first thought was "How much did Apple pay for the UK?" They can probably afford it at this point.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
As the summary said, negotiations are ongoing. The fact that these claims are showing up right now and fly in the face of everything we've previously heard regarding Apple Pay seems to suggest that they are nothing more than a feeble attempt on the part of the banks to gain some better leverage in the negotiation process. They're hoping for outrage. Unfortunately, the only ones who give a crap about this stuff (i.e. us) are the ones who also know that Apple Pay is differentiating itself with its lack of collecting information.
As for why they'd want more leverage, the real reason is buried in the article:
The Telegraph also notes that some banking executives fear that Apple Pay could serve as a "beachhead for [Apple's] invasion of the banking industry."
Which is to say, the UK banks are concerned by the rapid uptick of Apple Pay in the US, are beginning to realize that it's gaining real traction, and are worried that it could be the means by which Apple establishes a toehold in the financial industry that allows them to begin exerting the sort of influence they have in other non-technology industries (e.g. music).
At the risk of getting modded to oblivion, I consider Apple Pay the same as I consider Google Wallet. It is like broadband availability in that it will be predominately a big city thing. In rural areas like where I live I don't see it working. Hell, I saw my first Apple Pay commercial this holiday season and even the bigger stores such as Walmart in my area doesn't have the receivers for this. It simply requires too much involvement from too many entities to be feasible everywhere. First, the buyer has to have confidence in the tech and more importantly the security of that tech. We aren't there yet. Second, it requires the merchant to install the receivers which are costly and again, the trust that it will be secure has to be there. Lastly, it requires the cooperation of the bank to honor payment requests from the receivers.
Again, this may work in larger cities but in the vast majority of rural America I don't see it.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.