I almost never have to resort to Amazon any more.
And no, my post is not an "ad" *eyeroll*. There seem to be several competitors active in a maturing ecosystem. I don't have experience with them them to the level that I'd feel comfortable citing them, but I regret not mentioning them if it would have made the point more effectively. If PayPal, or Google Pay, or some other provider has served that role for you, I'm glad.
Rightly or wrongly, I worry less about the security implementations of hardware point-of-sale terminals than the security implementations of small websites.
I mostly prefer Apple Pay for in-person transactions because of anonymity — my understanding is that it makes it harder for companies (other than Apple) to track my purchases.
> Do those technologies prevent the merchant from getting raw CC info?
They do:
https://www.worldpay.com/en/insights/articles/how-does-a-chi...
> An enabled EMV terminal reads and verifies the card information contained in the embedded chip when inserted into the slot of the payment terminal. Like using the magnetic stripe, card data is then processed for payment authorization; the key difference is that the chip card generates a one-time code for each transaction while a traditional magnetic stripe card does not.
So, the merchant doesn't get the raw CC number; they get a transaction token.
This doesn't prevent someone from reading the CC account number off of the physical card, but unlike swiping a stripe, the act of purchasing via an EMV token means that the CC account number doesn't enter the system.