Comment by buro9 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by buro9 | Hacker News Reader

I liked Google pay, until I found myself randomly in some experiment group and it just didn't work one day. I discovered this in the shop, and of course I wasn't carrying physical cards because I'd been duped into thinking the digital type would never fail.

I started carrying my physical cards after that, and started using them more for quick transactions, as I'd rather risk dropping a piece of plastic rather than my phone.

I've entirely switched back to physical cards now, after exclusively using digital wallets for years.

One thing that helped is learning how much data is stored by the wallet providers. I fear data being used against me, in the future, in ways I cannot imagine today.

So imagine my surprise when a Stripe payment, for an online service to provide hormones for transitioning, which is legal where I live... Triggers Stripe to send an email phrased like it was necessary for order confirmation, and then to create a Link account presumably with the transaction details... Opt-in via dark patterns.

One thing not covered is the safety of wallets and the metadata around transactions, safety for individuals from the politics of the United States.

I doubt there is much difference to this tracking vs credit and debit cards. Really unless you are paying with case I think your transaction history is being sold.

I mean, you can just read up on Gov information on it: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-repor... (similar reports are published by the EU, UK, and other governments)

"Apple is reportedly using consumer data, such as spending history and which devices a user owns"

"Specifically, Google collects an immense amount of consumer data when consumers use the product. Google appears to use this data to develop new services and also in its advertisement business, among other thin"

Payments made by Apple Pay and Google Pay/Wallet both include a lot of data, and the use of that data by Apple, Google, Samsung, et al is "opted-in" when you chose to use the service and were presented with the very long ToS to agree to.

I bet most people didn't realise that Google may share all of that data (you can see your activity here https://payments.google.com/gp/w/home/activity ) with their affiliates and partners, the opt-out is hard to find and most people are unlikely to be aware of it, it's on this page: https://payments.google.com/gp/w/home/settings

Note: Stripe Link also collects a lot of data https://link.com/gb/privacy-center

Contactless card payments are naturally limited in the amount of data collected and very tight regulation about how it's used.

From a privacy standpoint cash wins, but realistically cards will be used offline and online... so cards which are not loyalty / points cards, and not used via Apple Pay, etc, and which you can use in person, or enter each time into a payment provider and not store are the best choice.

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