SECURITY FIRM SAYS GOOGLE WALLET NOT SECURE

Security firm ViaForensics recently said Google Wallet does not properly protect personal data, including credit card balance information, on a rooted Nexus S smartphone. Google Wallet is an NFC-based mobile payment system for Android that is accepted by a number of retailers in the United States. It is currently only officially available on the Nexus S and Nexus S 4G. “While Google Wallet does a decent job securing your full credit cards numbers, the amount of data that Google Wallet stores unencrypted on the device is significant,” ViaForensics said in a recent report. “Many consumers would not find it acceptable if people knew their credit card balance or limits.”

GOOGLE WALLET AND CHECKOUT MERGE

In a move that has "common sense" written all over it, the folks over at Mountain View have decided to merge Google Checkout with Google Wallet. The marriage hardly comes as a surprise, considering the fact that both services serve essentially the same purpose -- namely, storing all your payment information in one neat little package. To make things even tidier, Big G has just folded Checkout into Wallet, which will soon be integrated within the Android Market, YouTube and Google+ Games, as well. As a result, the Checkout moniker will vanish from the Earth, but current users will be able to seamlessly switch over to Wallet the next time they log in to their accounts or make an online purchase.

GOOGLE WALLET SIGNS UP SEVEN MORE RETAILERS

Google recently announced that its Google Wallet NFC mobile payment service now accepts a host of new retail locations, including American Eagle Outfitters, Foot Locker, Jamba Juice, Guess, The Container Store, Toys”R”Us and OfficeMax. Previously, the payments were only accepted in a handful of Walgreens and Subway sandwich stores in San Francisco and New York. In addition, Google says its Offers service, which provides discounts at each location, is also available in a number of the aforementioned retail outlets. Users can purchase a smoothie from Jamba Juice for $2 or take 15% off at Macy’s, for example. Unfortunately, Google Wallet is still only available to owners of Sprint’s Nexus S 4G.

RUMOR: GOOGLE TO LAUNCH GOOGLE WALLET TOMORROW

Google Wallet was first officially announced back in May along with partners Citi, First Data, Sprint, and MasterCard. Using a compatible phone and payment point (MasterCard PayPass) it allows you to pay for things using just your phone–no need to get your card or cash out. Tomorrow, it looks like Google Wallet gets an official launch.

You will be able to take advantage of Google Wallet on Sprint if you own a Nexus S 4G and shop where there’s a compatible MasterCard PayPass point. However, a limited public launch isn’t a bad thing as it will allow for a low level of use to be monitored and tested. If everything goes to plan, we can expect the availability of Wallet across more networks and NFC-enabled phones to increase fairly rapidly.

For the moment this hasn’t been confirmed by Google, but as has been rightly pointed out, it’s the NFC World Congress today and the Nexus Prime is expected next month which will also offer NFC as standard. It does sound like the perfect time to roll this out.

SPECIAL STICKER WILL ALLOW NFC-LESS ANDROID PHONES TO USE GOOGLE WALLET

Though it hasn’t been officially announced, during the Q&A session at the Google Wallet press event, Google mentioned it would be releasing a special sticker that will act as an NFC chip and will let NFC chip-less phones work with Google Wallet. This is a good move on Google’s part as the company said most Android phones in the future will support NFC technology but that’s a year away at least.

The sticker would have just one set of credit card information attached to it. So, unlike the way Google Wallet with a built-in NFC chip works, you would not be able to attach different loyalty accounts, use Offers, and so on. It would basically be just a way for you to make purchases with your smartphone.

GOOGLE SUED BY PAYPAL FOR STEALING TRADE SECRETS

On the same day Google unveiled its new mobile payments system, Google Wallet, eBay and its online payment arm PayPal filed a lawsuit against Google and two of its executives for stealing trade secrets relating to mobile payments.

Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, both of whom were heavily involved in the development of the Google Wallet service, were named in the suit. Beider and Tilenius were formerly PayPal employees who left the company to join Google and help build Google Wallet. Both executives were with PayPal for the better part of a decade, and Bedier was most recently vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures.

The suit accuses Bedier of having “misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers,” and it alleges that Tilenius broke a contractual agreement with eBay by recruiting Bedier once moving to Google.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES GOOGLE WALLET

Putting to bed months of rumors, Google on Thursday announced an "open" NFC-based mobile payments ecosystem that lets users pay for items by tapping their phone against a payment reader.

"Your phone will be your wallet. Just tap, pay, and save," said Stephanie Tilenius, Google's VP of Commerce, announcing the platform at the Google Partner event in New York.
'Google Wallet' is a free Android app that securely stores multiple credit cards, or a Google prepaid card linked to your credit card (one that Google provides). When opened on an NFC-enabled smartphone, you can tap your phone against a supported payment reader and the item you want to purchase is instantly charged to your credit card.

Field tests are already in place in New York and San Francisco, but when it launches commercially this summer Google Wallet will work on Sprint's Nexus S 4G, MasterCard credit cards issued by Citi, and at retailers equipped with Mastercard's PayPass terminals. The transactions will be processed by First Data, an Atlanta-based company.

Retailers who've signed up include Walgreens, Subway, Toys "R" Us, American Eagle Outfitters, and Macy's.

At the event Osama Bedier, a former PayPal exec and currently Google's VP of Payments, demonstrated the end-to-end consumer experience with a skit about buying denim shorts for his daughter.

First, Bedier opened the Google Wallet app on his Nexus S and agreed to the Terms and Conditions. He then attached his Google Wallet to a Google account, entered a PIN number to open the wallet, and filled out a form to link his Citi credit card account to the app.
Then Bedier stepped into American Eagle Outfitters store (use your imagination), where Beth McCormick, senior director of customer systems at AEO, joined the stage and handed him a pair of American Eagle's MIDI shorts. Bedier brought the shorts to a PayPass terminal, tapped his smartphone against it, signed his name, and "left" the store.

Bedier called this "Single Tap" but in reality, it's more of a tap-sign transaction.

BANK OF AMERICA TRIALING MOBILE WALLET PAYMENT PROGRAM

According to a BGRsource, Bank of America has started inviting select customers to trial its new Mobile Wallet payment service program based on NFC technology. This technology allows users to pay for purchases by waving their mobile phone in front of a receiver.

The program only works with BlackBerry smartphones at this point, and in order to make your existing phone NFC-capable, Bank of America is sending testers a new battery cover in addition to a microSD card. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 and 8530; BlackBerry Bold 9000, 9650 and 9700; and BlackBerry Tour 9630 are all supported devices. Payments can be made at any location where Mastercard’s PayPass is accepted, and the program will become active very shortly “this Spring.”