October 14, 2011 | by Andrew Kameka
I’ve read a lot about Google Wallet today. Earlier this morning, I saw a report from a research company, reprinted by The Telegraph, that claims most consumers in the UK are fearful of near field communications. Only 17 percent of 1,000-plus people surveyed by Intersperience say that they want to use their phone to make mobile payments. A perceived lack of security worried 44 percent of respondents, with 24 percent saying that they fear their phone is more likely to be stolen than a wallet.
And? When someone steals your wallet, they can walk into a store or go online with your credit card and go on a spree. If someone steals your Google Wallet-enabled phone, they get your phone – not your purchasing info. Aside from calling your credit company to prevent purchases just like you would if any actual wallet was stolen, consumers should also read the Wallet security policy to see why their data is secure.
The Secure Element…is separate from the phone’s main operating system and hardware, which enables encrypted protocols to enforce access control. Only authorized programs like Google Wallet can access the Secure Element to initiate a transaction. There are multiple levels of protection for data stored on the Secure Element and it is protected at the hardware level from snooping or tampering…Even Google Wallet itself has very limited access to the Secure Element, and cannot read or write data from its memory.
Google Wallet is obviously more secure than your actual wallet, so the challenge to encouraging adoption will be letting people know how easy and secure it is to use Wallet. That’s exactly what Google did in New York and San Francisco. In this video shared on Google Plus, we can see Google picking up the tab for a bunch of shoppers wowed by the system. I’d guess there’s a degree of over-excitement because the cameras are rolling, but there are some people who are genuinely impressed and surprised by the simplicity. Google will probably need viral videos like this and a whole lot more marketing in order for people to embrace Wallet. Among other things.