iPhone 5 to have Near Field Communication(NFC)?

Rumours are gathering pace that the iPhone 5 may have NFC (Near Field Communication). This is the system that allows pinless payment transactions to take place. At the moment the only major company offering this type of service in the UK are Barclaycard. You are able to make a payment by simply holding your NFC enabled credit card close to the payment terminal and do not need to enter a PIN number. The transaction is automatic. Barclaycard currently limit the maximum payment amount using this technology to £15.00. This suggests that they are minimising the risk of fraudulant transactions that could take place. Will this be a good technology to use in the iPhone? Possibly, at the recent SXSW conference in Austin Texas one of the most popular apps in use was one named “Uber”. This allows users to hail a cab from their iPhone. Cab drivers with the Uber app receive updates that somebody is waiting to be picked up and they can go and collect the user. The user then pays for the cab ride within the app. While this is not NFC technology the fact that so many people were prepared to use it would suggest that there is a demand for this type of transaction. One other point is that NFC technology makes payments easier and therefore is likely to lead to increased sales. Who remembers student days where you felt if you paid by card rather than cash it was like you had not really spent anything?

The European Union has told companies such as Google and Facebook that they must comply with soon to be implemented data privacy laws or face court action. One the new rules will be a users “right to be forgotten”. This means that you would not only be able to deactivate an account on Facebook as you can now but can actually delete the account and in the process remove all images of yourself. This sounds like a good idea, but implementing it may be a nightmare. Deleting photos that you have uploaded to Facebook is one thing, but what if you have been tagged in a photo uploaded by somebody else? Does that person have to delete their picture of you? Another development is the fact that tracking cookies must be explicitly accepted by a user before they can be set on your machine. Google Analytics stores five separate tracking cookies on a users machine. This legislation, due to be introduced at the end of May could have profound implications on the accuracy of data from Google Analytics. However do not panic just yet. The European Union’s justice chief has already said that the laws will not be fully implemented upon introduction and companies will be given time to comply with the new regulations.

Curebit Adds Social Media to Online Shopping
Curebit is a new social service that will integrate with many shopping carts and provides the ability to generate sales through social media sharing. The quick pitch for how the service works is as follows. A user makes a purchase from a site, when the order is placed the user receives an on screen referral offer. The user is given the option to share the offer with their friends via social media. If those friends purchase something via the link then the original user is credited with something such as cashback or a discount.