Mobile Payments: Are Google Pay & Apple Pay Safe?

It’s no longer just the product scanners that beep at the supermarket checkout – but also the smartphones. Since the advent of mobile payment, more and more people are pulling out their cell phones or raising their wrists to accompany their shopping with their smartwatch – often followed by an iconic beep, such as that of Apple Pay.

However, the good old plastic card is still much more common. Many people are still afraid to connect their own smartphone to their bank account. The risks seem too high – and data protection questions also arise.

So it’s high time to clarify a crucial question: How do you pay safely with your smartphone? And: Should you do it at all?

To the point

How to add your card

The path to mobile payment usually leads via the so-called wallet app, which works like a digital wallet. It is not only suitable for paying, but also for other everyday things: you can store plane tickets, museum tickets or digital tickets for local transport here. The wallet app is usually preinstalled: with Apple it is the Apple Wallet, on many Android smartphones it is the Google Wallet, with Samsung it is the Samsung Wallet.

If you now want to pay with your smartphone, add a credit or debit card to the wallet app. This always works slightly differently depending on the device, bank and provider; Detailed information can be found in the instructions of the respective bank. Sometimes the card is photographed or the card number is entered manually. This is usually followed by a verification step via the house bank’s app. Alternatively, the process also works directly via the respective banking app of the house bank. Once the card is connected, you still have to make sure that NFC is activated in the smartphone settings – but this is usually the default setting.

The smartphone can then be used to pay. The operation of the checkout is slightly different depending on the manufacturer: On the iPhone, you activate Apple Pay with two clicks on the side button and then hold it up to the card reader. With a smartphone with Google Wallet, regular unlocking with your fingerprint or face is often enough – then you hold the smartphone up to the card reader without opening an app.

If you want to activate mobile payment on your smartwatch, the setup differs depending on the device: With the Apple Watch, this works via the Apple Watch app on the iPhone; with the Pixel Watch from Google, you can also add a card via the watch itself.

Is paying with your smartphone safe?

But is mobile payment really a good alternative to debit or credit cards? As far as security is concerned, definitely: a plastic card can be misused if it falls into the wrong hands. Up to a certain amount, purchases can be made without entering a pin. It would also be possible for card information to be spied on through manipulated reading devices.

This is not so easy to do with a smartphone: Confirmation from the smartphone owner is required for every payment transaction in the store, for example via fingerprint or face scan (Face ID). If the smartphone falls into the wrong hands, criminals can’t do much with it.

In addition, there is sophisticated security technology behind mobile payment: no credit card data is transferred when paying – rather, it is an encrypted copy that is only valid for the respective payment process.

Be careful if you lose the device

However, a little caution is still required: It is important to always keep your smartphone and the respective payment apps up to date – so updates should be carried out regularly, ideally automatically. This ensures that any security gaps are closed by the manufacturer.

If the smartphone is lost or stolen, the card should be blocked – despite all security measures. It is also possible to lock the smartphone remotely. This works via apps like “Find My Device” (Apple) or “Find My Device” (Android).

Are Google and Apple watching you pay?

However, one problem remains: data protection. Even if paying via smartphone is considered secure, the devices and the associated software belong to large US corporations. In other words: While previously only the bank knew in which stores you bought something, Apple and Google now theoretically know it too.

The manufacturers themselves are appeasing: Apple, which traditionally promotes data protection, states that transaction data is not stored and cannot be traced back to the customer. The information from recent purchases is only stored locally on the iPhone, so Apple has no insight.

Google does collect transaction data such as location, time, amount and sometimes the type of purchase. The data protection regulations also state that personal data can be used within the Google group of companies for marketing purposes unless you object to this. In the end, it is also a personal question of principle whether you want to entrust the payment to a large US tech company.