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As PayPal’s Home Depot In-Store Trial Expands, Can Users’ Sloppy Security Habits Change?
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January 26th, 2012
PayPal's expansion of its in-store payments trial at Home Depot (up from 400 PayPal employees to all PayPal users) marks a huge jump in the trial's scope—and risk. On January 19, PayPal opened up the trial to include 51 stores (up from the initial 5) and said all PayPal users could now sign up for the system. That should give both PayPal and Home Depot much more useful information on who will use the system, and how.
But PayPal's approach—which essentially reverses 50 years of payment-card advances by eliminating any physical authentication device—still presents a big challenge when it comes to security. The ability to check out with just a mobile phone number and PIN—no plastic card, NFC-enabled phone or other authentication hardware required—means anyone who can acquire that phone number plus PIN has a free shot at the legitimate customer's account.
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2 Comments | Read As PayPal’s Home Depot In-Store Trial Expands, Can Users’ Sloppy Security Habits Change?
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
January 26th, 2012 at 7:39 am
“All that really does sound simple,…” Still not as simple, or as secure, as me simply tapping my “chipped” MasterCard on the POS terminal. Let’s face it if you are stupid enough to leave both your phone and your wallet in your car or wherever, undoubtedly you should not be allowed out without an adult chaperone, and that chaperone would most likely have a credit/debit card issued by a real bank. The other aspect about this that frightens me is, are people actually leaving their funds “on deposit” with this unlicensed, un-prudentially regulated PayPal “bank” that is not itself even licensed to provide credit? Otherwise, how are users’ funds being sourced from the user’s real bank? Frankly, this clunky operation sends shivers down my spine.
February 23rd, 2012 at 1:40 pm
There are many reasons why a user may want to pay with Paypal even if they have their payment cards with them. It’s a good way of bypassing a retailer’s choice to not accept certain payment cards (e. g. Amex, Discover, out of area debit cards, prepaid debit cards/travel money cards etc), and/or clearing small balances from Paypal. Or indeed buying something on behalf of someone else, who has paid for it in advance with Paypal. That said, I agree overall with the article, and I probably wouldn’t use paypal that way.