Design Challenges

I'm very concerned

I just saw a McDonald commercial advertising a new feature from Mastercard, Paypass. After doing some quick research I come to find out that the Paypass is simply a small device that any vendor could obtain which allows MasterCard holders to simply tap the device and the card is charged. Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? It is bad enough that cashiers don't check for a signature, but now if I choose to enable this feature on my credit card, any one who takes possession of my card no longer has to show the card, now all they have to do is tap a device and I get charged.

What's next? I can see someone creating a hack so that this built in credit card feature can be scanned from a distance allowing them to obtain full access to my charge card.

The bottom line is that companies are trying to make it easy for us to shop. This is a great time-saving idea, however, I'm not sure that they have taken the time to protect our security. Maybe I just don't know all the details, but I challenge Master Card to post more information on their site to inform concern customers like myself.