I originally intended this to be a blog about everyday happenings. You know, my life. The life of the Goneguy. But I see that it's turning out not to be the case. It seems I rant more about things than give a running "diary", as it were, of my day to day mundane life. Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad as I don't post often enough to keep a storyline going. So, I'll do what I do best...whine.
Like the title says, A Techie Rant, I'd like to rant about digital wallets, or perhaps the obvious lack thereof. What the digital community would like you to believe is that they have the end all be all of digital wallets, I have some concerns about that. Apple with their Passbook, AT&T,Verizon, and T-Mobile with Isis, another NFC style payment system with Google Wallet, and not to forget Walmart, CVS, Target and Best Buy's bid using MCX. And guess what? None of them are compatible with the others. What seems to be overlooked when calling these methods "wallets" is that it's not true. My wallet consists of much more than that. Ok, I challenge you. Look in your wallet. If all you see is credit/debit cards then you may be all set with one of these formats. Me, I have a drivers license, health care card, and a Kroger card along with my debit card. And that is my stripped down version. Now, while I understand that finding an app to accommodate every possibility and combination of cards is unreasonable, I do find that some do better than others or are at least better positioned to handle them.
I understand the logistics. Getting states to accept digital versions of drivers licenses/ID cards, healthcare companies to issue digital versions of their cards, or insurance companies to say that it's ok to use any form of digital proof is an uphill battle. As much as this country claims to be technologically advanced, we sure are technophobic. These places are rightfully concerned about privacy and security. And they should be, but, if Square, PayPal and businesses the like of Starbucks can give you security in finances, I'm sure many others shouldn't have a problem. That is if they can see their way clear of opening their purse to implement these things that, in my opinion, much of America wants.
Speaking of PayPal, they seem to be best suited to implement the monetary version of this digital wallet. Their implementation of peer to peer payments as well as C2B is cross platform and easy. Locally at businesses you merely check in, pick up your items and have the checkout attendant scan them. You authorize payment on your phone using your PayPal app. There is no direct exchange of financial information. It's all handled by a third party company that many have already entrusted with this information. ID theft therefore becomes a little harder. Apple stores have taken this one step further. Walk into any Apple Store and connect to their WiFi. Upon doing so, you can now use the Apple Store app on your iPhone to scan the barcode of many items and purchase them. The credit card you have on file with iTunes gets charged. You get an email presenting you with your receipt. You now just get up and walk out of the store. I can see this being handy with so many stores, especially those that sell groceries.
Now that I've mentioned Apple (again), I believe they are the ones best suited for all other wallet filling cards. With iOS 6 they introduced Passbook. It's original intent was to hold all your shoppers cards in one place. Show up at a store and your card pops up. I think this method could be used with many other cards, none the least of which, drivers licenses. If any business has the clout to be able to pull that off, Apple should. Get together with all states and explain to them the safety and security of digital licenses and implement them in Passbook. This saves money in the manufacturing of cards and most of all eliminates the need to carry around all these documents.
With all the positives that I see (and may not have explained well but is straight in my head), I do understand that all this personal information is stored digitally on devices that are lost, damaged and stolen and I can understand the apprehension of some to adopt this technology. There are ways around this. I know with iPhones, they can be locked out from use or even wiped remotely through their iCloud website. This yet raises another potential concern. To store this information online or not. It would make things very easy to retrieve in the event of a lost or damaged phone. Get a new phone and download the information to it. A central repository is something that would have to be looked into for its feasibility.
I don't know how the future of digital wallets is going to look but I have my ideas of what I'd like to see. I'm hoping my thoughts have come across here. Anyone else have any ideas?
