It is increasingly common to see people paying with their mobile or smartwatch in stores, bringing them closer to a compatible POS or dataphone. This is what is known as payments contactlessthat is, those that are carried out no contact. And its growing popularity is clearly seen with data: although cash continues to be the means of payment that the highest percentage of people use daily in physical establishments, followed by cards, 25% of users already use mobile devices; a figure that increases year after year.
The technology that makes this possible is NFC (Near Field Communicationfor its acronym in English), which is the same one that makes up the new identity cards, public transportation cards in some cities or the keys to enter some buildings. It is a wireless technology that allows two devices to be connected over a very short distance; Since you usually have to touch them for it to work, it is practically impossible for someone to intervene in the remote data transfer, so it is a very secure method.
First, on the smartphone
In the smartphones NFC technology has been in use for quite some time now – the first to integrate it was Google’s Nexus S in 2010 – although its initial use was quite different from the current one: it served to link devices (for example, the mobile phone with headphones) by placing them in contact, or to send files as an alternative to Bluetooth. Once virtual wallet applications were developed such as Google Pay either Apple Pay (and all the security system that they entail) it has been possible to use it to also pay in stores.
Then it began to be integrated into smartwatches and, today, many of the models from the main brands are also compatible with payments contactless: Apple Watch, FitbitSense, Samsung Galaxy Watch, Xiaomi Mi Watch…The system of use is the same: you open the payment application, select the card if you have several configured, and approach the dataphone.
Smart watches that do not have this option among their features can add it by simply changing the strap as long as they use one like the ones from Polarcompatible with all your sports watches and any other that uses standard 20 and 22 mm straps—this includes traditional watches. In this case, you must use the Fidesmo Play app to link the payment cards; a reliable system because the bracelet only stores a card token, not the card data itself.
Finally, let’s talk about smart rings, which are becoming popular in recent months — or, at least, many manufacturers are presenting their models and describing them as the next gadget fashionable—and they have also included this option. Although some are very focused on activity monitoring, there are others whose main functionality is to make payments such as Rikkia Spanish-made model that opts for a minimalist aesthetic and is made of hypoallergenic ceramic that is scratch-, water- and shock-proof; either cnickwhich attracts a lot of attention because to pay you have to rap your knuckles a couple of times on the payment terminal and wait a couple of seconds for the transaction to complete.
Are payments ‘contactless’ safe?
The truth is that experts believe so. One of the biggest risks when it comes to wireless connections is that someone can intercept the communication and steal the data (in this case, the card), but with NFC technology it is very complicated, since the dataphone and the device that used for payment have to be a very short distance away. In addition, NFC communication is encrypted and hidden, so businesses at no time have access to the card information.
In any case, if you want to take extreme precautions, what can you do? Among the most recommended is to establish double authentication factor to access digital wallets and make payments or transfers, activate notifications to always be aware of transactions, never use public Wi-Fi networks and create strong passwords for applications with banking information.
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