• PayPal Reportedly Working on Integrating Touch ID Technology into iOS Apps

    by
    Akshay Masand
    Published on 2014-06-06 04:26 AM
    2 Comments Comments


    Shortly after Apple announced the opening of Touch ID APIs to third-party developers with iOS 8, mobile and digital payment services giant PayPal is already said to be working on implementing the feature into its apps. According to sources within PayPal, the company is looking to integrate forthcoming iOS 8 Touch ID fingerprint recognition APIs into its mobile payment apps according to BusinessInsider.

    A team of PayPal developers attended a Worldwide Developers Conference session on Wednesday focusing on the hardware-based security system. PayPal’s director of global initiatives, Anuj Nayar, confirmed the company had indeed sent a handful of developers to the session, suggesting PayPal is at least showing official interest in the technology. According to the person:

    It seems to be a fairly easy API to use, but we're still kicking the tires.
    For some industry watchers, the integration of Touch ID and payment services is seen as the next logical step for Apple’s secure fingerprint scanning solution. In its current form under iOS 7, Touch ID is limited to the iPhone 5S and can only unlock the handset or authenticate purchase through iTunes.

    The Cupertino California company is widely expected to include Touch ID into every new iOS device introduced in 2014, including the rumored iPhone 6, refreshed iPad lineup and possibly the iPod Touch. With a huge installed user base and hundreds of millions of credit cards on file, the iOS iTunes ecosystem is ripe for a fast and secure mobile payments solution. Touch ID solves the storage and recall of financial data part of the equation but point of sale infrastructure in retail stores represents a large obstacle when it comes to widespread adoption.

    PayPal among other companies like Square, have partnerships with certain retailers, though the proprietary solutions require a standalone app and can be more difficult to use compared to paying with a credit card or cash.

    Apple recently wet its feet with the consolidation of payment-oriented apps with Passbook, which serves as a central hub for gift cards, rewards cards, tickets and other digital assets, but the app’s reach is still somewhat restricted. With the opening of Touch ID’s APIs, Apple could potentially be testing the waters to see its full-fledged first-party payments solution is worth the effort. We’ll have to wait and see what comes of the whole ordeal.

    Source: BusinessInsider
    This article was originally published in forum thread: PayPal Reportedly Working on Integrating Touch ID Technology into iOS Apps started by Akshay Masand View original post
    1. Categories:
    2. iOS,
    3. Apple
    Comments 2 Comments
    1. tree720's Avatar
      tree720 - 2014-06-06, 05:23 AM
      Unless you were balling real hard, seems a little redundant. I think a password, which you select, mind you, consisting of numbers, letters, symbols and capitalization should be sufficient protection.
    1. Dhawkins541's Avatar
      Dhawkins541 - 2014-06-06, 12:33 PM
      I might have missed it but I didn't see anything in here inferring on sufficient protection. Yes, they imply protection being part of it, but I think hey if I can allow my fingerprint to replace trying to recall 47 different passwords for crap then yes please. In this day an age if things get easier for me on my mobile device on remembering every single password and all the answers to those stupid f$&@ing questions that everyone makes you have to answers to to login to anything. Amen to that cause the current situation is dismal. I mean no one is gonna pay my student loan bills or steal them for that matter I ain't that lucky.

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