Category: Mobile Payments

Rumors suggest that Google may be looking to buy Softcard

Google may be in negotiations to acquire Softcard, the mobile payments firm that had once been known as Isis. Rumors suggest that Google may be looking to purchase Softcard for some $100 million, but neither company has confirmed this speculation or denied that negotiations are taking place. Google has a strong interest in mobile payments, having a payment platform of its own that has found modest success. The company has been working to establish a stronger foothold in the mobile commerce space in order to compete with others therein.

Softcard hit by layoffs during restructuring effort to become more efficient

Earlier in the month, Softcard laid off 60 of its employees during a consolidation phase. The company is taking steps to reduce the costs that it is exposed to in order to strengthen its business position. The layoffs were part of a larger restructuring of the company, which involves simplifying its organizational structure in order to be more efficient. This is not an uncommon practice in the business world, especially when it comes to the turbulent mobile payments industry.

Company helps 200,000 merchants accept NFC-based mobile payments from Android and Windows Phone devices

Softcard exists as a way for large organizations to embrace mobile consumers with NFC-enabled devices. The firm offers NFC-based payment systems, which allow companies to accept transactions being made with mobile devices that are using NFC technology. Softcard claims that more than 200,000 merchants in the United States are making use of this service, as well as the Softcard application, which is available for both Windows Phone and Andorid.

Other companies show potential interest in the acquisition of Softcard

Google may not be the only company that is interested in Softcard. Rumors suggest that both PayPal and Microsoft have approached the company concerning potential acquisition. None of these companies have confirmed that these rumors are true, however. In Google’s case, the company is adamant in not acknowledging such rumors, apart from noting that it does not confirm rumors about its business operations.

A new filing has been spotted that could bring the data from Touch ID to other devices via the cloud.

The US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent filing from Apple that could have to do with part of its mobile security feature that collects fingerprints in order to unlock devices and conduct other functions through certain iPhone models.

The filing was called “Finger biometric sensor data synchronization via a cloud computing device and related methods”.

The patent described a method of recording an individual’s fingerprints by way of the Touch ID mobile security sensor from Apple, so this information could then be uploaded to the cloud and synced with other Apple devices. The sensor necessary for Touch ID has been built into Apple technology in its smartphones since the iPhone 5S, and in the iPads that have been released since that time in 2013. The sensor allows a device owner to use his or her fingerprints in order to access the device. However, more recently, it also became an identity verification feature when making purchases through the new mobile wallet system, Apple Pay.

This potential change to the mobile security feature is meant to help to make the system more convenient.

Apple described in the patent filing that enrollment into Touch ID could potentially be “cumbersome for users in some instances, such as when multiple fingerprints, users and/or devices are used.” By synchronizing the process using a cloud based function, it would help to eliminate the need to re-register a device owner’s fingerprints on every device, in addition to the fingerprints of all of the other people who are to be given permission to access the iOS gadget.

At the time of the writing of this article, the Touch ID security page at Apple explained that “iOS and other apps never access your fingerprint data, it’s never stored on Apple servers, and it’s never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else.”

If that mobile security policy is to remain the same, it makes one wonder how this potential cloud synchronization technology could possible work, and how it could be safely applied in order to protect the data from the Touch ID feature.