I think I understand what he means. The solid apple symbol stands out like one bold character in a line of normal text. An outlined apple symbol would be much lighter and wouldn't stand out as much.
Jest? Yes and No. The Apple user demographic is catholic to be sure and contains more than a hint of heroic persistency, never_say_die obstinacy and downright militancy - I've been around long enough to witness examples of all three. I would never bet against Apple and forcing users onto a less secure, more convoluted, freedom busting, cynical data mining hack.......is very likely to be picked up and thrown in their face by a fair proportion of that demographic.
No. It's not about religious fanaticism - it's far more guttural and insinctive.
PS. When I read any of the following...(Apple +) cult(ish), religious, fanatic, fanbois, mindless drones etc...any respect I may have had for an argument or point of view, is instantly shredded. Just so you know.
In other words, you're saying "the customer is always right." Those are rules to live by in the retail business.
Most of these companies encourage use of customer loyalty cards for discounts. Not sure why they don't want to use Apple Pay when they get their customers using the loyalty cards most of the time (in lieu of paying full price instead of sale price).
If customers use Apple Pay and their loyalty card they get all the information that they need.
"Everyone wants their cut of the take and retailers have long been harvesting data from their customers for resale under the phony premise of "customer loyalty" programs.
How many times have you been in line when the person in front of you is asked if they have their loyalty card and when they say no, the person behind you in line says " Here use mine". So the data says that this nice 74 year old women is buying condoms and a pregnancy test kit. I wonder how much if the " what you buy " data is corrupt by this practice. I just wonder how seriously they rely on this data for analysis. Enough to risk denying ApplePay to keep geting it?
ohh so let me get this straight. You stop the progression of secure transactions because you can't sell my data.
Apple should remove their apps from the App Store on the premis that, they (Apple) does not support the selling of customer data.
Will definitely be avoiding all of these stores.
Apple will offer abundant opportunities for retailers to mine customer data as long as you choose to play along. Expect ApplePay and retailers to dangle carrots like rebates, discounts and shopper points in return for your retailer being able to track you, via your iDevice and iBeacons, from the door to the register. While the card# may be hidden from the retailer "you" may not be.
IMHO the poorly conceived and implemented Current-C is about money and control. Unable to get better discounts from VISA, MasterCard and the like they will try to do an end-around and avoid them, supposedly saving 2-3% in expenses. Gathering marketing data is a bonus, and I believe used to entice you to buy more useless stuff you didn't know you needed by using in-store pop-up notifications and perhaps email or SMS offers.
That last part really isn't all that different from someone like Walgreens pushing increasingly personal targeted ads to your iDevice thru installed apps and iBeacons, while using checkout with ApplePay (or Google Wallet eventually) to rate the effectiveness of the marketing. That's gold. Big retailers wouldn't be advertising on Apple's behalf without something of value in return would they? Connect all the dots: Bluetooth on by default, iBeacons and compatible apps no longer needing to be open but just installed to receive offers, iAd "buy buttons" and personal re-targeting to assist advertisers, and ApplePay loyalty programs with rewards for allowing a little identity matching it should be easy to see why commerce is excited and willing to spend money to promote it.
FWIW I don't think Current-C has a chance in hell of succeeding with consumers. I don't even think it will put sufficient pressure on VISA and brethren to reduce processing costs for the MCE member retailers. It's dead before it even gets off the ground.
Bullshit. I'm not going to scan my W2, 1099, bank interest, capital gains, property tax bills and a million other expenses. That would take forever because I don't generally receive them in a secure digital format in the first place. I can't believe there are so many inexperienced people posting idiotic advice on tax preparation.
Uhhhh....the consensus here appears to be that you, sir, are the idiot. Fifty Million Frenchmen.
As a business owner, I despise the credit card companies and banks that charge obscene transaction fees and charges. On top of that, in many states, they get laws passed that do not allow a business to charge a higher price for credit customers, or a lower price for cash customers. Merchant fees are a structural tax on a business, and card users are kept in the fold through cash rewards, airline miles, etc. Plus, most card companies are notorious for protecting even bad customers when they dispute charges for services rendered properly.
So you have to understand why retailers do things like this. They would like credit card companies and the 2-5% fees to go away.
Understanding why does not equal condoning it. There's nothing stopping CurrentC from cutting out the credit card companies' tax while simultaneously offering customers more convenience, privacy, and security. But as implemented, CurrentC choses to treat customers like captive animals: to be bagged, tagged, and studied. And by turning off NFC payment terminals, CVS/Rite Aid are not letting their customers choose between these payment options, so all that's going to happen is their customers will "chose with their feet." That has always been the case.
CurrentC is the only thing Google Android users hate more than Apple based on comments in the Google Play Store. That is a very high bar but Merchant Customer Exchange has somehow managed to unite the two camps.
You would think Google, Inc. and MCX would be united by their love of tracking customers like cattle, for marketing purposes.
Apple should release a statement on Monday something to the effect that "We are all for fair competition. We will agree to leave CurrentC in the App Store as long as MCX merchants continue to accept NFC payments. Let the consumers decide which system they want to use."
In other words, you're saying "the customer is always right." Those are rules to live by in the retail business.
The customer is "always right" is a cliche that made sense in the 20's to the 50's when you could only pay in cash, and most items were made to last, not made to be obsolete in 3 years.
Today the correct cliche is "The customer is always lying"
You have people who believe that just because a ToS or Law is written a certain way, that any loophole must be exploited. That is why we have BIG companies buying Canadian companies for Tax loopholes, or moving their money through Ireland or various Caribbean Islands. These contracts are not meant to be exploited, and thus we wind up with encyclopedia volume sized contracts because "Mr. American Smartass Dimwit" will otherwise find a hole in it.
Apple Pay, IS, for the most part the correct direction we must take. NFC is more secure than a simple "swipe" card, but because every card reader also has a mag stripe reader, it's the weak element of NFC. The sooner all cards become NFC the sooner all "mag stripe" systems can be disabled worldwide. America is the holdout that is keeping this insecure. So Apple Pay actually goes one step further to single use tokens, thus solving that problem... a problem that the Card companies couldn't overcome due to lots of legacy equipment out there.
Chip and Pin is actually less secure than Apple Pay, but only in how the transaction path works. In Chip and Pin, you can still pull the mag-stripe data without contacting the bank, thus it has the same weakness as NFC transmitting the card number in the clear. As it was discovered, there are weaknesses in EMV, and a lot of it has to do with "compatibility" with insecure methods. https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/03/22/chip-and-pin-compatibility-leads-to-insecurity/
What's in it for Rite Aid or CVS? People will buy regardless of method. They don't care. What will you all do when and if the machine goes down- barter?
Those on screen signatures mean nothing. You could sign ISIS or XXX.com nobody checks that.
I've been to a few places that use the iPad for their checkout station that will hand you the entire iPad to sign your card and it has an excessively large area in which to sign. In those instances I like to draw a picture as my signature. Usually something scenic.
99.9% of consumers don't need retail receipts printed to do their taxes. And if you need it for any reason, just AirPrint it.
I use to save recipes but now I just use my yearly card statements to grab all the data from the comprehensive PDF they let me download.
That probably works fine for an individual!
In a household with 2 adults and 3 teenagers, there are a lot of expenses -- any many not payable by credit cards ... school lunches, church donations ... Other purchases are not identifiable without an itemized receipt that may contain: food, TP (household supplies), cooking supplies, gifts (from who and/or for who), pet supplies, makeup, medicine, DVDs, sporting goods, personal care, clothing, school supplies, several iPhones and cases, cables, iTunes Gift Cards, etc. from the Apple Store ...
Lots of purchases are made by the kids who pay cash for everything, as they don't have credit cards.
In this environment, it is almost impossible to create a meaningful household (and by individual) budget without detailed receipts.
This does not mean you need to do this every month -- but doing it for 2-3 consecutive months does a reasonable job of capturing most of the data needed to create a budget.
Recently, my 18-year-old granddaughter was thinking about getting out on her own with some help from her parents (she works and goes to school)
It's amazing how useful a [reasnably] detailed budget is when planning for something like this.
What would be ideal for detail expense reporting and budgeting would be to
get itemized receipts, with UPCs, for every purchase in digital form with Apple Pay
have an app that categorizes these into expense categories by UPC
use the expense details/summaries to periodically generate a household and individual budgets
use the above expenses to generate summary performance against budget reports
I believe that one of the most important lessons that a parent can give to their children is: How money and credit works -- and how they can be used too your advantage ... realistic expense accounting and budgeting are integral to this.
Comments
I could not agree more!
Now that would be fraud as my drawing skills are inline with a 6yo with a box of fat crayons.
Just completed that task. Do they really thing QR Codes are the future? The process is absurd!
1 Tell the checkout person you want to pay via Current C
2 Open the Current C app
3 A Current C QR Code is displayed on the register.
4 Use your phone to take a picture of the QR Code.
5 Wait for it to transfer to their app exchange
6 When recognized your phone will vibrate
7 Your screen will refresh with a new QR Code
8 Show that QR Code to the checkout person
9 Checkout person scans your phone
10 Your code is sent to Current C server for verification
11 Verification granted (or not) and the transaction is complete!
Modern technology! 11 steps means many layers of security (Just ask the TSA)
Apple should remove their apps from the App Store on the premis that, they (Apple) does not support the selling of customer data.
Will definitely be avoiding all of these stores.
In other words, you're saying "the customer is always right."
If customers use Apple Pay and their loyalty card they get all the information that they need.
How many times have you been in line when the person in front of you is asked if they have their loyalty card and when they say no, the person behind you in line says " Here use mine". So the data says that this nice 74 year old women is buying condoms and a pregnancy test kit. I wonder how much if the " what you buy " data is corrupt by this practice. I just wonder how seriously they rely on this data for analysis. Enough to risk denying ApplePay to keep geting it?
IMHO the poorly conceived and implemented Current-C is about money and control. Unable to get better discounts from VISA, MasterCard and the like they will try to do an end-around and avoid them, supposedly saving 2-3% in expenses. Gathering marketing data is a bonus, and I believe used to entice you to buy more useless stuff you didn't know you needed by using in-store pop-up notifications and perhaps email or SMS offers.
That last part really isn't all that different from someone like Walgreens pushing increasingly personal targeted ads to your iDevice thru installed apps and iBeacons, while using checkout with ApplePay (or Google Wallet eventually) to rate the effectiveness of the marketing. That's gold. Big retailers wouldn't be advertising on Apple's behalf without something of value in return would they? Connect all the dots: Bluetooth on by default, iBeacons and compatible apps no longer needing to be open but just installed to receive offers, iAd "buy buttons" and personal re-targeting to assist advertisers, and ApplePay loyalty programs with rewards for allowing a little identity matching it should be easy to see why commerce is excited and willing to spend money to promote it.
FWIW I don't think Current-C has a chance in hell of succeeding with consumers. I don't even think it will put sufficient pressure on VISA and brethren to reduce processing costs for the MCE member retailers. It's dead before it even gets off the ground.
Bullshit. I'm not going to scan my W2, 1099, bank interest, capital gains, property tax bills and a million other expenses. That would take forever because I don't generally receive them in a secure digital format in the first place. I can't believe there are so many inexperienced people posting idiotic advice on tax preparation.
Uhhhh....the consensus here appears to be that you, sir, are the idiot. Fifty Million Frenchmen.
As a business owner, I despise the credit card companies and banks that charge obscene transaction fees and charges. On top of that, in many states, they get laws passed that do not allow a business to charge a higher price for credit customers, or a lower price for cash customers. Merchant fees are a structural tax on a business, and card users are kept in the fold through cash rewards, airline miles, etc. Plus, most card companies are notorious for protecting even bad customers when they dispute charges for services rendered properly.
So you have to understand why retailers do things like this. They would like credit card companies and the 2-5% fees to go away.
Understanding why does not equal condoning it. There's nothing stopping CurrentC from cutting out the credit card companies' tax while simultaneously offering customers more convenience, privacy, and security. But as implemented, CurrentC choses to treat customers like captive animals: to be bagged, tagged, and studied. And by turning off NFC payment terminals, CVS/Rite Aid are not letting their customers choose between these payment options, so all that's going to happen is their customers will "chose with their feet." That has always been the case.
CurrentC is the only thing Google Android users hate more than Apple based on comments in the Google Play Store. That is a very high bar but Merchant Customer Exchange has somehow managed to unite the two camps.
You would think Google, Inc. and MCX would be united by their love of tracking customers like cattle, for marketing purposes.
Every time I pass a CVS I get a sick feeling.
Apple should release a statement on Monday something to the effect that "We are all for fair competition. We will agree to leave CurrentC in the App Store as long as MCX merchants continue to accept NFC payments. Let the consumers decide which system they want to use."
The customer is "always right" is a cliche that made sense in the 20's to the 50's when you could only pay in cash, and most items were made to last, not made to be obsolete in 3 years.
Today the correct cliche is "The customer is always lying"
You have people who believe that just because a ToS or Law is written a certain way, that any loophole must be exploited. That is why we have BIG companies buying Canadian companies for Tax loopholes, or moving their money through Ireland or various Caribbean Islands. These contracts are not meant to be exploited, and thus we wind up with encyclopedia volume sized contracts because "Mr. American Smartass Dimwit" will otherwise find a hole in it.
Apple Pay, IS, for the most part the correct direction we must take. NFC is more secure than a simple "swipe" card, but because every card reader also has a mag stripe reader, it's the weak element of NFC. The sooner all cards become NFC the sooner all "mag stripe" systems can be disabled worldwide. America is the holdout that is keeping this insecure. So Apple Pay actually goes one step further to single use tokens, thus solving that problem... a problem that the Card companies couldn't overcome due to lots of legacy equipment out there.
Chip and Pin is actually less secure than Apple Pay, but only in how the transaction path works. In Chip and Pin, you can still pull the mag-stripe data without contacting the bank, thus it has the same weakness as NFC transmitting the card number in the clear. As it was discovered, there are weaknesses in EMV, and a lot of it has to do with "compatibility" with insecure methods. https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/03/22/chip-and-pin-compatibility-leads-to-insecurity/
What will you all do when and if the machine goes down- barter?
Buh bye CVS/Rite-Aid.........Hello Walgreens!
That probably works fine for an individual!
In a household with 2 adults and 3 teenagers, there are a lot of expenses -- any many not payable by credit cards ... school lunches, church donations ... Other purchases are not identifiable without an itemized receipt that may contain: food, TP (household supplies), cooking supplies, gifts (from who and/or for who), pet supplies, makeup, medicine, DVDs, sporting goods, personal care, clothing, school supplies, several iPhones and cases, cables, iTunes Gift Cards, etc. from the Apple Store ...
Lots of purchases are made by the kids who pay cash for everything, as they don't have credit cards.
In this environment, it is almost impossible to create a meaningful household (and by individual) budget without detailed receipts.
This does not mean you need to do this every month -- but doing it for 2-3 consecutive months does a reasonable job of capturing most of the data needed to create a budget.
Recently, my 18-year-old granddaughter was thinking about getting out on her own with some help from her parents (she works and goes to school)
It's amazing how useful a [reasnably] detailed budget is when planning for something like this.
What would be ideal for detail expense reporting and budgeting would be to
I believe that one of the most important lessons that a parent can give to their children is: How money and credit works -- and how they can be used too your advantage ... realistic expense accounting and budgeting are integral to this.
CVS should be out of business, anyway.
http://consumerist.com/2010/10/15/should-cvs-have-sold-22-inhaler-to-asthma-sufferer-who-only-had-20/