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Watch the Patriots practice in VR through Google Cardboard
You can't currently get a first-hand experience of an NFL game short of becoming a football star and strapping on a helmet, but Bank of America and Visa are promising the next best thing. They've launched a virtual reality experience that lets you see the New England Patriots' training sessions using Google Cardboard. If you've ever wanted to see Gillette Stadium from the field or watch Tom Brady lead a practice play, you now have an easy way to do it. Only Android users can get the full-on VR experience, unfortunately, but any Patriots fan who can watch 360-degree YouTube clips can check it out.[Image credit: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images]
PayPal, Square and big banking's war on the sex industry
For nearly a decade, PayPal, JPMorgan Chase, Visa/MasterCard, and now Square, have systematically denied or closed accounts of small businesses, artists and independent contractors whose business happens to be about sex. These payment processing authorities have also coerced websites to cease featuring sexual content under threat of service withdrawal, all while blaming ambiguous rules or pressure from one another.Monday a federal appeals court ruled that pressuring credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard to stop doing business with speech-protected websites violates their First Amendment rights. Specifically ones that feature content from sex workers. And in June, the FDIC clarified that it's against the rules for businesses like PayPal, Chase and Square to refuse business or close accounts based on "high risk" assessments related to human sexuality. But it may not be enough to stop what's become an entrenched pattern of systematic discrimination by payment processors -- one that disproportionately denies financial opportunities for women.
Swatch's payments watch is coming to the US
Swatch has announced that the mobile payments watch that it's sending to China will also make its way over here. The watchmaker has teamed up with Visa in order to offer the Swatch Bellamy in the US, Brazil and Switzerland. It's the third entry on that list that's the most eyebrow-raising, since Swatch CEO Nick Hayek very recently criticized his home nation's own banks for being slow to embrace new payments tech. It looks as if Visa has stepped in to make its relations in Switzerland look fusty and slow by comparison.
Shift is a debit card for your bitcoin wallet
Even though the banking industry and US regulators are getting on board the bitcoin train, actually spending your hard-mined bitcoins can be a bit tricky. Luckily, Coinbase debuted a solution on Friday: the Shift debit card. It's the first such bitcoin-based debit card issued in the US and is backed by VISA. With it, bitcoin users will be able to shop at both on- and offline stores -- basically anywhere that VISA is accepted. The card is linked to your Signing up for the card simply requires filling out this form and paying the $10 issuance fee (in bitcoin of course).
Banks can bring class-action suit against Target over data hack
Target's legal woes continue to mount over its now-infamous data breach in 2013, which exposed the credit card numbers and personal information for as many as 70 million shoppers. A District Court judge in Minnesota ruled on Wednesday that Target was negligent in its credit card data security and is therefore liable to a class-action suit brought by banks affected by the hack. That $5 million lawsuit seeks to defer the cost of covering fraudulent charges made with the stolen data. Wednesday's decision allows the primary five plaintiffs -- Umpqua Bank, Mutual Bank, Village Bank, CSE Federal Credit Union and First Federal Savings of Lorain -- to represent the rest of the class in its action.
Samsung Pay beta arrives on every major carrier but Verizon
Samsung has opened the public beta of its new phone-based Pay service ahead of its official launch late next month. Beta participants will need to have a Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5, or S6 Edge+ (unrooted, mind you) as well as a credit or debit card from US Bank (Visa) or Bank of America (Visa or MasterCard). Additionally, they'll need cellular service from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, or US Cellular. Verizon subscribers are SOL as the company is still "evaluating" Samsung's system. There's no word yet on when or if Verizon will actually participate. [Image Credit: FilmMagic]
Target's data breach payout to Visa may hit $67 million
It's nearly two years since Target suffered its giant shopping data breach, and the retailer is still paying for its mistakes. In the wake of a $19 million payout to MasterCard, Target has reached a settlement with Visa over compensation for the many, many customers exposed to potential credit and debit card fraud. Neither side is revealing the specifics, but the Wall Street Journal understands that Target will pay up to $67 million. That's a significant blow for a breach, though not crushing for a company that raked in $635 million in profit last quarter. Target adds that it already factored these costs into its previous earnings reports, but this should still serve as a friendly reminder that lax security can prove costly in more ways than one. [Image credit: AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty]
Technical error prevents US from issuing passports and visas overseas
A technical issue has halted the State Department's issuing of passports and visas from its overseas offices. According to the department's guidance, anyone that applied for a passport from outside the US after May 26th is affected by the problem, the root of which is unclear. Simultaneously, but apparently separate to the passport issue, visa applications made on or after June 9th are not able to be processed. At least this time, the department has pinpointed the problem: a hardware failure is preventing biometric clearance requests from making their way to database for processing. In a statement given to The Hill, a spokeswoman said there was "no evidence the problem is cyber security related."
Apple Pay to launch in the UK in July
Apple's take on mobile payments has been available in the US for the better part of a year, but here in the UK, we've been left with the faint hope that it'll one day arrive. Rumors suggested it could be announced at WWDC 2015, and it turns out they were correct: Apple Pay will come to this side of the Atlantic next month. Most of the big-name banks are on board, with Lloyds, Halifax, Natwest, HSBC and Santander all supporting Apple Pay, but Barclays is a notable omission. Apple says that the service will be available in 250,000 locations, including Lidl, McDonald's, Nando's and the Post Office, covering more retailers at launch than were originally available in the US. For commuters and tourists, Transport for London has confirmed it will also support the NFC technology inside its barriers, allowing you to travel on the Tube and the city's buses without the need for a wallet.
Vodafone's mobile payment app to scrap top-ups with a new SIM
If you want to make contactless mobile payments in the UK, your options are pretty limited. Apple Pay is only available in the US (for now) and Google Wallet is bound to Gmail transactions and Google Play purchases in Britain. Spotting the opportunity to take an early lead, Vodafone is readying a new Visa-powered alternative. The company already offers an app called "Vodafone Wallet," but it relies on the user managing a separate SmartPass account. To pay with your phone, you first have to shuffle money across from your bank account to Vodafone's virtual piggy bank. It's a huge pain, so the network is prepping an updated app that allows customers to store their card details directly on the phone.
Visa's secure payment system is expanding to online shopping
Visa's move to protect your credit card numbers was apparently pretty popular. How do we know that? Well, it's coming to a bunch of places that aren't adorned with the Apple logo -- that's how. The company has announced that "other leading device manufacturers and technology companies" will adopt Visa Token Service this year. What's more, the company says it plans to use its secure payment system (one that doesn't any of your actual credit card info, but randomized data) on Visa Checkout transactions online as well. Even better? The outfit says that it expects some of the biggest online retailers to adopt VTS too. Oh, and banks and credit unions in the Latin America, the Pacific region of Asia and the United States are also supposed to come on board with the tech in 2015. If that means less worrying after the next inevitable data breach, hey alright! [Base image credit: OrphanJones/Flickr]
Daily Roundup: NASA engineer Annie Easley, a new View-Master and more!
Get caught up on today's news in the latest edition of the Daily Roundup. Learn about Annie Easley, an African-American woman who helped make early spaceflight possible, go hands-on with us as we take Mattel's View-Master for a spin and find out how the UK plans to test autonomous vehicles. All that and more can be found past the break.
Visa wants to track your travels abroad to prevent declined payments
Yes, banks sometimes decline credit card transactions abroad for your own protection, but it sure can be annoying, especially when you're not carrying money in the local currency. Visa has a new service for card holders in the US that could prevent that from happening again: one that instantly cross-references your phone's location with the transaction. If the location data matches, the bank automatically approves your payment, so you can use your cards even in places with high CC fraud rates. The feature will come bundled with banks' mobile apps starting in April this year, but Visa says it's completely optional, and you can leave it deactivated in case of privacy concerns.
Ford, UPS and Visa want net neutrality, but they won't tell you that
It's not just tech giants (and President Obama) pushing for a tougher approach to net neutrality -- other outlets want reforms, too. A trio of regulatory filings reveal that representatives from Bank of America, Ford, UPS and Visa spoke to FCC commissioners multiple times this year to press for stricter net neutrality under the banner of an advocacy group, the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee. The companies tell Bloomberg Businessweek that they weren't taking particular stances on the issue, and were only concerned about getting their customers a "fast and reliable connection," as Ford puts it. However, the filings suggest otherwise -- the Ad Hoc members gave the FCC material explicitly asking for the internet to be reclassified as a public utility, as the President wants. So why the he-said-she-said discrepancy?
Apple Pay could make everyone's mobile wallet purchases cheaper
Have you stopped to consider what impact Apple Pay will have on the credit card industry? Don't worry, we hadn't either, but Bank Innovation believe that the service might just send mobile payments mainstream. Currently, tapping your phone on a reader incurs a transaction fee of 2.75 percent, far higher than the 1.5 percent that's imposed when you swipe a card. Because the issuing bank's card isn't there, there's a greater risk of fraud that banks multinational financial services corporations like Visa and MasterCard then have to shoulder. According to the report, however, the biometric security in the new iPhones might have convinced both institutions that mobile payments aren't a huge risk anymore. The site goes further, to suggest that both will create a "Cardholder Present" transaction fee which either matches the card rate, or is close enough to mean that you won't be pulling out a calculator to work out if it's cheaper to use your phone or card to buy subway tokens. Naturally, both financial institutions have denied that any such discussions are taking place, but hopefully it won't be long before these systems reflect the real world.
Visa's Token Service generates fake CC numbers to keep your real ones safe
If you haven't heard yet, Cupertino just launched a digital wallet called Apple Pay that randomizes your credit cards' numbers. The one responsible for generating those fake numbers for Visa cards in particular, is Visa itself, through its new Token service, which the world's largest credit and debit card company has announced right after Apple's big reveal. These "tokens" are random numbers not associated with your name or real card numbers. You can use them to purchase anything online or by using mobile to pay via contactless payment systems in brick-and-mortar stores. Visa's system can even generate different tokens for each merchant, device or type of purchase, if you want to be even more secure.
Apple is reportedly teaming up with American Express on iPhone payments (update: MasterCard too)
Those longstanding rumors of Apple building a mobile payment service may be coming true sooner than you think. Recode's sources claim that the folks in Cupertino have struck a deal with American Express to work on an iPhone payment system, hot on the heels of The Information's report of a similar agreement with Visa. Details of the system aren't clear beyond a tie-in with the next iPhone (and likely your iTunes account), but Apple is supposedly ready to spill the beans at its September 9th event -- if the leak is accurate, you're going to get the full story pretty quickly.
FTC busts up $275 million credit card scam, sues the folks behind it
The folks down at the Federal Trade Commission are busy helping all of us these days, whether they're weighing in on patent disputes or forcing firms to help cover your child's lack of parental supervision. Today, the FTC charged several companies and individuals with participation in an elaborate shell game from 2010 that was really just a $275 million dollar credit card scam. According to a separate, ongoing lawsuit filed by the Commission, a company called I Works did the stealing, but wouldn't have been able to take $26 million of the total without the aid of the defendants in this new lawsuit.
Visa's latest stab at online payments is all about checking out faster
Remember V.me, Visa's big attempt at conquering the online payment space? You'll be forgiven if you don't -- it quickly fizzled out, in part because it was a digital wallet that sometimes made shopping more complicated. The company may have learned its lesson, though. It just launched Checkout, a considerably simpler approach to e-commerce. The focus here is purely on getting through the checkout process as quickly as possible. Once you've put in the details of supported credit or debit cards (including non-Visa cards), you just have to log in to complete a purchase, whether it's on a website, Android or iOS. There's no in-between wallet, and you won't get kicked over to another page just to wrap up a transaction.
US considers blocking Chinese nationals from hacking conferences
Following its decision to charge five Chinese officials for allegedly stealing trade secrets, the US is apparently ready to take further action. Reuters reports that the US government may impose visa restrictions on Chinese computer experts, stopping them from attending the high-profile Def Con and Black Hat hacking conferences in August. Black Hat currently has three Chinese speakers lined up to present, while Def Con has none on its roster. The move is said to be part of a "broader effort to curb Chinese cyber espionage," after cybercriminals were said to have infiltrated six American private-sector companies to help give Chinese state-owned firms a competitive advantage. Organizers of both events, which include Def Con and Black Hat founder Jeff Moss, were unaware of the government's plans, but Moss did note on Twitter that such actions would not help build a "positive community." While an official block has yet to be imposed, stopping Chinese nationals already in the country from attending could prove difficult -- Def Con's privacy-conscious setup requires attendees to pay using only cash and they never have to share their name.
