ApplePay and the Feds Ping!
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Posted on 02/15/2015 12:35:28 PM PST by Swordmaker
It's not really an endorsement, and it doesn't really change payments.
Apple CEO Tim Cook just announced that Apple Pay, the company's mobile-payment system, will work with payment cards issued by the federal government, and some federal agencies will start taking Apple Pay payments in the fall.
Bloomberg is calling it a "big win" for Apple Pay. Well, hold on there. Yes, the government does $26.4 billion in transactions a year on GSA SmartPay cards. But what are these cards? They're not some strange, alien form of payment. They're just plastic Visa and MasterCard cards issued by Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and US Bank—all of which are existing Apple Pay partners.
All they had to do was turn on a switch for these cards, and the federal employees, veterans, and others using them can now scan their cards into Apple Pay (if they have an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus).
What this doesn't change is where they can spend money with those cards. If the National Park Service, say, starts accepting NFC-based payments, that's another category where iPhone users can tap to pay. But that will require upgrades at thousands of locations—and the federal government is notoriously slow about upgrading its physical and technical infrastructure.
Oh, and by the way—Google Wallet, Softcard, and other NFC-based payment services should work at those same locations once they're upgraded. In fact, the federal government issued a request for information on new payment systems in January, suggesting it's considering embracing many new forms of payment technology.
If you're a federal employee on a business trip who's spending her per diem at Whole Foods, I suppose this is a marginally interesting development. And it's good publicity for Apple. But otherwise, this news doesn't mean much for most of us.
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Always looking for crony deals
Show us where Apple has any "crony deals" with the Federal government. . .
“Always looking for crony deals”
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This is anything BUT a crony deal. It will allow the relevant cards to be used (via Apple Pay) without providing the merchant/vendor with information on the card number or individual’s “personally identifiable data” thus minimizing/eliminating fraud from ID theft stemming from the transaction.
This is actually a GOOD THING.
LOL ... I’ve already read some of the stupid remarks where Apple is supposedly working in collusion with the Federal government, in order to collect extensive personal information about all the Apple customers ... saying that Tim Cook “sold out to Obama”.
I gotta ask, sometimes, “Is Free Republic really getting dumber by the year?” ... :-) ...
Most Freepers no, but add Apple to the mix and some get deranged for some reason. You know the MAPS condition my girlfriend and I have come up with. . . it is a pathological syndrome. I seriously believe they cannot help it. I think its part of the Stockholm Syndrome. . . having put up with Windows for so long they are warped into defending their choice forever.
Swordmaker's and Kathy's proposed diagnosis for the new ICD-10 addenda:
90210 iOS Munchausen's Apple-Plexy Syndrome (MAPS), The overwhelming compulsion to post negative, judgmental, aggressive, and false commentary on any website thread related to Apple products wherever found, including phobic reaction to projected Apple user euphoria. First and subsequent encounters.
Most definitely.
It’s really too bad, but maybe it’s just a reflection of the condition of the general populace, at large. It’s rubbing off ...
“Apple” really does make some people go absolutely nuts!
Enjoy what's left of your liberty, sports fans.
Well, I don’t think that people will give up on all sorts of other tangible monetary items. People are inventive. But, maybe for legal tender, yeah ... it will come to that.
And that’s what the Bible indicates, too. Not trying to get a Bible discussion going here, but there is some “authoritative” writings that does indicate that.
Nothing crony about it. Apple is just pulling together technology that is sitting there to be pulled together or upgraded to what it’s going to be upgraded to anyway. All Apple did was supply there right user experience.
No problem if (and when):
...your Body Mortgage payment is extorted through, and next transaction pops up
...”payment denied”
and...
No problem if (and when):
...your Body Mortgage payment is extorted through, and next transaction pops up
...”payment denied” REPORT TO _____________ .
I am considering an iPhone for my next phone. I have preferred android but Apple Pay has me reconsidering. I don’t like spreading my CC number all over the place.
This coming week, for Chinese New Year, my wife and I will be giving out red envelopes containing money to unmarrieds and kids. It's an annual tradition for us. Nothing like good old paper money for the kids to enjoy. In the future it may come down to inserting printouts of scan codes in red envelopes for kids to get credit on their iPhones. Personally, we go cash as much as possible to keep our anonymity.
I gotta say “Apple Pay” is an excellent, excellent implementation of keeping your personal data away from the retailer (of course the paying bank has to know or they can’t “pay”). And you can see that “by design” it is highly secure!
I can’t say EXCELLENT enough times to this!
You may be right; FReepers used to take no small amount of pride out of being able to make cogent, rational arguments written clearly and succinctly.
Now it seems like FReepers are just another interest group trying to shout down those who disagree with them using inane schoolyard tactics.
I've just about given up on trading ideas here, because most posters don't even realize they've lost. Their assertions seem more like an ongoing political campaign than argumentation over right and wrong ideas.
The soul of any good argument has always been using logic as the rule by which both parties could agree on who has the valid argument, and who should concede.
Now, no one concedes...ever.
Yep, I’ve noticed that.
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