Technology | 2007.11.23
One more thing cellphones could do: Replace wallets
Instead of reaching for your wallet in the next few years, you\'ll be able to pull out your cellphone and wave it over a scanner to make a payment.Convenient? You bet. Secure? Companies working on this new system say it is rock solid. Encrypted payment information travels through the air from the phone to the scanner. The system is based on "contactless" technology already in some smart cards — credit cards and key fobs embedded with chips so they can be used instead of swiping a magnetic credit card. Chips are finding their way into driver\'s licenses, passports and other forms of identification, and contactless cards are used in many transit systems."It\'s relatively easy to make cellphones very secure devices," said Allen Weinberg, managing partner at Glenbrook Partners, a Menlo Park, Calif., financial services and electronic payments consulting firm. He said the encryption is "as good as or better than what you do with an ATM or at-home banking. No one is going to pick up your phone...
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