84. NFC, contactless payments
December 17, 2009
The security of financial data is a huge issue, but so is customer convenience. As retailers struggle to balance these two possibly competing interests, two things are clear. Retailer awareness of contactless payments is growing by leaps and bounds, and so is their resolve to implement the new technology. One fall 2008 survey found that 52 percent of companies are exploring the use of mobile contactless payments within two years. But customers may take some serious convincing to jump on board, given continuing lapses in financial data security (see No. 81, Credit card data breaches).