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The value of Apple Pay in one stat: almost half of Americans have had card details stolen

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Apple Pay may be more convenient than carrying around a whole bunch of different cards, and contactless payment is certainly very quick and easy, but it’s the security which is arguably the greatest benefit. Your actual card details are never stored in your phone or on an Apple server, and only a one-time code is sent to the payment terminal. Retailers never see your card details.

Just how important is this? A WSJ/NBC News poll reveals that a full 45% of Americans have been told by a retailer, bank or card company that their card details have been stolen in a data breach.

In the past year alone, major breaches have been reported at Target, J.P. Morgan Chase, Home Depot, K-Mart, SuperValu and others […] 

Some 45% of Americans said they had received such a breach notification letter from a retailer or card-issuer that their payment data had been affected by a breach

Fifteen percent of those polled also said that they had been hit by online fraud or hacking.

Apple Pay is currently only available in the US, but a job listing recently revealed that Apple is working on bringing the service to Europe and beyond.

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Comments

  1. Rohan Gupta - 9 years ago

    The title of this article is very misleading. It reads like ApplePay is the cause of stolen credit card information.

    • verizon2828 - 9 years ago

      Have you lived under a rock for the past few months and don’t know what Apple Pay is? If so, then your comment makes sense b

      • rahhbriley - 9 years ago

        Well that’s just like, your opinion man.

        Check your aggression dude. The headline could be better. That’s all that was said. I’ve not lived under a rock the past few months and still thought the headline was odd. And most people don’t follow this crud as close as we do. 9to5 gets referenced and aggregated a lot by typical media outlets, and plenty of people that don’t follow the tech sector end up reading their articles. They don’t just write for us. And those less tech savvy individuals are more likely to have been one of the 45% of Americans that have been the victim of a data breach. Regardless of that…It IS a bad headline (I write copy and work in digital publishing, so I’m claiming authority to speak on the matter). I still enjoy Ben’s writings, but the headline could be better. Also don’t know if I’d agree that the title is “very misleading” as Rohan puts it but that’s like, his opinion man. Let him have it.

        Get off your high horse man. People are gonna start throwing stones back.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      That strikes me as an odd way to read it, but thanks for the feedback.

      • verizon2828 - 9 years ago

        Well….it IS an Apple blog after all, right? It’s hard to find people who visit an Apple blog who also don’t know much about Apple. Have a great day.

    • Computer_Whiz123 - 9 years ago

      Ya, i noticed that too

  2. 89p13 - 9 years ago

    And what will the CurrentC stats look like 3 months after that abomination is released?

    I keep hoping it will be still born or, like nature, it will be seen as damaged and aborted before it’s delivered!

  3. macnificentseven48 - 9 years ago

    That headline is certainly ambiguous because it could certainly be interpreted as Apple Pay being the cause of those credit card breaches if the article didn’t say otherwise.

  4. Michael Napier (@NapMan) - 9 years ago

    This is exactly the reason I was excited about Apple Pay. I have had (3) different debit cards issued from my bank within the past year because of the hacks. My info was never compromised but my bank decided to issue new cards as a precaution.

    It’s wasn’t a huge pain but I had to go in and enter new cards on all my accounts. It did cause a problem when I got a call from Visa on a Sunday morning because someone was trying to use my old card number. Turns out it was just CrashPlan trying to renew and I had forgotten to change that one.

  5. Truffol (@Truffol) - 9 years ago

    I have no doubt credit card fraud is a major issue but 45% seems a tad high. Don’t think THAT many banks had their databases hacked.

    • verizon2828 - 9 years ago

      Not banks, Americans and I think that’s a true number. We’re talking about stores like Home Depot, TJ Maxx, Target, etc. Those places are in business to sell product, not to invest the required amount of money in IT infrastructure to protect consumer data. I’m sure customer info is on the back burner and their profit motives are put first. We lucky to have Apple Pay and the secure element in the iPhone so that WE can protect the data ourselves. CurrentC is never ever EVER going to succeed by trying to link personal bank accounts to their service…and have that bank account information stored in the cloud…which has already been hacked. They say it was only email addresses, but still. Hacked.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      I was surprised too, but some of the hacks have individually been in the millions, so it doesn’t need too many hacks to add up.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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