In recent mobile news, two former executives from AdMob have just launched a seemingly novel mobile commerce platform that scans your credit card via your phone's camera. Known as Card.io, this app targets developers by giving them the SDK to drop into their codes. For example, this could very easily complement a location-based coupon service or movie ticket app.Whenever it is time to make a payment in your app, card.io activates your phone's camera and displays a green frame on screen. You then place your credit card into the frame, take a picture of it, and Card.io's proprietary technology will scan the card in order to receive the desired information. The transactions themselves are performed by third-party payment processors used by the merchant. After that, your credit card information is deleted immediately from your phone for security.
Mike Mettler, a co-founder of the app and pre-Google developer at AdMob, said that the company was betting that in the long run, software will win out over hardware-dependent mobile payment solutions like the ones developed by Isis and Google Wallet. Unlike those two, Mettler is not concerned about being able to use your phone to buy anything a credit card can buy. "I'm never going to buy a mortgage on my phone," he stated.
Mettler went on to say that, "One of the biggest lessons I learned at AdMob is that mobile consumer behavior is different, it's not just about taking Web payments and cramming it into a smaller screen. Mobile payments are good for time-sensitive payments, like hotel reservations or Groupon Now, an instant activation feature."
Card.io is currently in talks with a "Craigslist competitor" about implementing a secure mobile payment solution that would not require buyers to meet up with a stranger holding a load of cash. What do you think? Is this app a good idea? Or is the thought of having sensitive credit card information streamed through your phone a little to invasive or risk-inducing?
Source: PC Mag - Former AdMob Execs Tackle Mobile Payments, Photograph Credit Cards
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If you are constantly working on the go, you definitely value your breaks. One thing a lot of people like to have with them when they are always on the go is music and no other service is quite as popular as Pandora. Now we all know that the Pandora app sends a ton of personal information to third party developers according to an analysis by Veracode. Well, Veracode decided to do a follow-up on their news that Pandora, as well as a lot of other mobile app makers, was being investigated by a federal grand jury and found that information, such as birth date, gender, Android ID and GPS information, was being sent to a plethora of advertising companies. Pandora recently revealed that they had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury to produce documents about their user data collection practices on Android and iOS devices. Pandora also stated that they believe the subpoena is part of an industry-wide investigation into popular applications on Android and iOS devices. The Wall Street Journal didn't waste any time following up on this news and reported that the purpose of the investigation is to find out whether or not app makers fully describe to users the kinds of information they obtain from them and exactly why they need it. Veracode decided to dig deeply into the Pandora Android app to see just what data might be transmitted. Veracode's analysis stated that Pandora's app seems to be integrated with five separate ad libraries that included AdMarvel, AdMob, comScore (SecureStudies), Google.Ads and Medialets. Veracode verified that the AdMob library accessed a user's GPS information as well as various other data about the application itself like package name and version info. That is all pretty low level but Veracode said that there are other references which appear to transmit your birthday, gender and postal code. In addition to that, the app also appears to send your Android ID and seems to continually access your GPS location for updates. According to a blog post by Veracode, "The analysis into the remaining libraries resulted in even more of the same.The SecureStudies library accesses the android_id and directly sends a hash of the data to http://b.scorecardresearch.com while the Medialets library accesses the device's GPS location, bearing, altitude, android_id, connection status, network information, device brand, model, release revision and current IP address." Pandora has argued that they need this type of user information in order to continue delivering personalized music streams. However, the analysis from Veracode shows that Pandora is not simply collecting that information for itself. They are also using it for advertising purposes. If the grand jury comes to the same conclusion as Veracode, then Pandora, as well as a whole host of other app makers, could be facing some pretty serious legal difficulties. "Your personal information is being transmitted to advertising agencies in mass quantities," according to Veracode. "In isolation some of this data is uninteresting, but when compiled into a single unifying picture, it can provide significant insight into a person's life... When all that is placed into a single basket, it's pretty easy to determine who someone is, what they do for a living, who they associate with and any number of other traits about them. I don't know about you, but that feels a little Orwellian to me." If all this is true then Pandora and other app makers will have some serious explaining to do. I, for one, do not want any kind of personal information like that being slung around carelessly to advertisers. Who knows, if advertisers can get it that easily, then what stops an identity thief from getting it? Source: 