Visa Debuts RFID-Enabled Payment Card

[AGENDA21]

Frame that dollar bill; if Visa and MasterCard have their way, it'll soon be an antique. The credit card giants say they're moving closer to gaining acceptance in the United States for radio frequency identification-enabled "contactless" payment devices that can be waived near a sensor rather than swiped through a card reader. Visa Thursday even introduced a mini version of its device, about half the size of a conventional credit card.

Radio-frequency tags have been a hit with drivers for the past decade, using them at Mobil gas stations and at tollbooths, but U.S. businesses have been slower to invest in the infrastructure needed to implement the technology in retail settings. Visa is trying to change that mind-set, and in December launched a pilot program at Atlanta's Philips arena, home of the NBA's Hawks and the NHL's Thrashers, to prove the efficiency of contactless payment when crowds gather at concession stands.

Season ticket holders with Chase-issued Visa credit accounts and Cingular wireless accounts can make contactless payments at concession stands throughout the arena using near-frequency communication-enabled Nokia 3220 cell phones. Pilot testers wave the phone within an inch or two of a radio-frequency reader without the need for a PIN or a signature. In the arena setting, merchants feel they can make more money because their workers can spend more time helping customers and less time handling money.

http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183700194

[peacetalksforall]

1. Wonderful system for ace tracker, Poindexter. n/t

[Dr. Jones]

2. Give it a few years and more disasters/terrorist attacks,

and this thing will be under the skin of every man, woman, and child for tracking, medical, and buying/selling purposes.

[Burried News]

3. Will we wear them around our neck?

Thinking the collars on star trek here.
Will Borg Warner be making them?

[C_U_L8R]

4. It's an implant

oh yeah.. and if you misbehave or mispeak.. look out... that thing packs a whallop !!!

[Burried News]

6. Probably usin the guys at Gitmo to make them after they're

quality contolled at Bagram.

[soothsayer]

5. thank god it will be easier for thieves to use my stolen cards

No pesky signatures or pins needed.

[yella_dawg]

7. I heard a rumor

that someone figured out how to insert malicious code into RFID. Read my card and maybe any subsequent RFID transaction performed by that reader automatically deposits a dollar from your card onto mine? The possibilities are endless!

Ya gotta love it.

[MadHound]

8. Just another reason I'm glad I've never had a card

And I never will. I'll be one of those old fogies holding up the line, waiting for that alien concept of "change for my dollar".

[Sadie5]

10. With no signature

to verify the purchase the crooks will move in big time. I had that with my MBNA card which I closed and am now paying off. Kept getting charges on the card about three years ago. They told me that anyone could put charges on my card without a signature and it was up to me to dispute those charges so after much argument they changed the #s. I had ordered cosmetics off the web and you can guess the rest. They sold their customer list I guess because this same marketing firm who was putting these charges on my card calls occasionally offering me a lower interest rate on a card already closed with an old CC #. I am on the AGs no call list and tell them where to shove it each time they call.

[AllegroRondo]

9. Just line your wallet with aluminum foil

and it cant be read unless you take the card out.