Oconee Fall Line How Apple and Google Play Work with Credit Cards Questions

Researching Apps for Mobile Payment Services

iPhone and Android phones both offer some kind of mobile payment service, which allows you to use your smartphone to pay for merchandise or services at a retail checkout counter. iPhone has Apple Pay, and Android uses Google Pay. Mobile payment services rely on NFC (Near Field Communication) technology to exchange financial information between your phone and the reader at the checkout counter. You might want to pay with a credit card stored on your phone or get discounts with a store rewards account reported by your phone as you check out. But how secure is your sensitive financial information?

Research the following topics and answer the following questions:

1. Research how mobile payment systems use NFC technology. How does NFC work? How can you activate NFC on an Android phone for making a payment with Google Pay? On an iPhone for making a payment with Apple Pay?
2. Find and read some articles online or watch videos that describe the details of storing financial information for mobile payment systems, accessing the information when needed, and transmitting the information securely. What security measures are in place? Where is the data actually stored? What information is actually transmitted at the point of transaction?
3. List three third-party mobile payment apps available either in Apple’s App Store or in Google’s Play Store. On which mobile OS versions will the apps work? What are advantages and disadvantages of each app? How much do the apps cost? What security measures do the apps use?
4. If you were to purchase one of these apps, which one would it be? Why?