FTC Mobile Payments Report Call for Transparency and Security

A new Federal Trade Commission mobile payments report focuses on the areas of dispute resolution, data security, and privacy. The FTC recommends that all mobile payment stakeholders devise transparent policies on disclosing and resolving bogus payments or unauthorized charges, with one goal being to make end users more aware of how protected their payment methods are when linking them to mobile payments. The commission also acknowledges the need for best practices when contending with data security across the mobile payment chain, with a recommendation that “mobile payment providers should increase data security as sensitive financial information moves through the payment channel, and encourage adoption of strong security measures by all companies in the mobile payments chain.” Complementing these efforts should be consumers’ implementation of data security practices such as putting passwords on phones and deploying secondary passwords for mobile payment apps. The FTC also urges the incorporation of privacy by design when building all aspects of a mobile payment system, giving consumers the choice to opt out of sharing data not relevant to the transaction at hand, and companies supplying transparency around their data practices.

[divide]