Comments on: “Mind Your Business” http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/26/mind-your-business Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:48:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dat To http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/26/mind-your-business/comment-page-1#comment-4252 Dat To Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:51:56 +0000 http://philosecurity.org/?p=660#comment-4252 This is an amazing article. I love the history parts and you on the road/ Amex story! I would love to see what solutions are possible for security. I've acquired business merchant accounts for 7 providers in my 5+yrs in the payment processing/ acceptance industry in Canada and I tell my clients everyday that all these companies can't be trusted. And, I'm just talking fees and services, not even touching on privacy issues. We don't get there, because I'd be out of business, and all these business owners NEED to accept debit & credit cards to stay in business. No one carries cash and I suspect that most consumers are spending money that they don't have using credit cards. This is an amazing article. I love the history parts and you on the road/ Amex story! I would love to see what solutions are possible for security. I’ve acquired business merchant accounts for 7 providers in my 5+yrs in the payment processing/ acceptance industry in Canada and I tell my clients everyday that all these companies can’t be trusted. And, I’m just talking fees and services, not even touching on privacy issues. We don’t get there, because I’d be out of business, and all these business owners NEED to accept debit & credit cards to stay in business. No one carries cash and I suspect that most consumers are spending money that they don’t have using credit cards.

]]> By: Kevin H http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/26/mind-your-business/comment-page-1#comment-4206 Kevin H Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:12:05 +0000 http://philosecurity.org/?p=660#comment-4206 I think the post is quite good and thought provoking, but I also think that we as individuals have a decently large ability to change the playing field for credit card companies. First, actively resist advertising. As you well stated a lot of this abuse, or more accurately systems ripe for abuse occurs because this information is valuable to marketers. Why is it valuable? Because we are gulible and generally buy things that we see in adds. If we actively resist advertising those incentives go away (and we probably get better, cheaper products as a bonus). The second is choice of card. Here I think things like this blog are very helpful. While I know of no cards that really meet a rigorous level of security, just even getting information out to people about what is wrong with a 'take what you want, I trust you' model is helpful. Debit cards offer at least some more security, and credit cards in some Asian countries all require PIN numbers. At least that much is doable in the short run if we as a whole are smart dilagent consumers. And if we continue to press for the long haul, who knows what is possible. I think the post is quite good and thought provoking, but I also think that we as individuals have a decently large ability to change the playing field for credit card companies.

First, actively resist advertising. As you well stated a lot of this abuse, or more accurately systems ripe for abuse occurs because this information is valuable to marketers. Why is it valuable? Because we are gulible and generally buy things that we see in adds. If we actively resist advertising those incentives go away (and we probably get better, cheaper products as a bonus).

The second is choice of card. Here I think things like this blog are very helpful. While I know of no cards that really meet a rigorous level of security, just even getting information out to people about what is wrong with a ‘take what you want, I trust you’ model is helpful. Debit cards offer at least some more security, and credit cards in some Asian countries all require PIN numbers. At least that much is doable in the short run if we as a whole are smart dilagent consumers. And if we continue to press for the long haul, who knows what is possible.

]]> By: Christine http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/26/mind-your-business/comment-page-1#comment-4202 Christine Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:35:44 +0000 http://philosecurity.org/?p=660#comment-4202 My life is such that almost every time I bother to use my credit card, the card is blocked and I get a call from the company noting my suspicious purchases. I just spent another 20 minutes on the phone getting it unblocked. My life is such that almost every time I bother to use my credit card, the card is blocked and I get a call from the company noting my suspicious purchases. I just spent another 20 minutes on the phone getting it unblocked.

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