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Android Pay and the Screen Lock requirement


G+_Vance McAlister
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Android Pay and the Screen Lock requirement

 

The problem with the Screen Lock requirement for Android Pay is this: We should be able to opt out of that inconvenience if we are willing to take the risk.  Sure, make it the default, but like allowing "unknown sources" for apps, we should have the option to take the risk.  We are big boys and girls.  Or require that a PIN be entered when we use Android Pay if we have not already used a lockscreen.  Requiring that I use a lockscreen every time I use my phone just so that a PIN is entered on the rare occasion I will use Android Pay is intense overkill. 

 

But that is not all:  even if you have Smart Unlock, with a watch, trusted places or wifi, etc, you STILL have to put in a Pattern or PIN to use Android Pay, even though the phone is unlocked in a situation you can trust!  So, now I already have my phone unlocked, I go to the terminal and tap, it prompts the PIN or Pattern, then I have to tap again.  That level of inconvenience that make it almost not worth using.  Ron Richards Florence Ion Jason Howell 

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I understand your frustration, I think it should require a lock on the app, but not the phone its self. That being said trusted devices are pointless if you still have to use a pin at the point of sale. I have two thiughts.

 

1. This is a push to get oems to implement fingerprint sensors because, that would be a less intrusive more natural way to increase security.

 

2. This is due to techno panic and all of our stuff will be "hacked" without the password lock. Google is just trying to prevent a PR nightmare of some media outlet doing a story on how insecure Android is.

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Jacob is right, even if the credit card companies wanted at least one level of security, the easiest way of doing it is to require EITHER the pattern/PIN when you use the app, or make us use a lockscreen.  Requiring that I use a lockscreen every time I use my phone just so that a PIN is entered on the rare occasion I will use Android Pay is intense overkill.

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Vance McAlister I think Daniel Cook is right - remember the risk equation changed on October 1. So I'm guessing that this was the deal Google agreed to to get the product out the door - or rather to keep mobile payments as a thing on Android. I agree that they want to push the fingerprint scanner. I also agree that it is very inconvenient if it indeed doesn't use trusted devices and makes you tap twice. And that may be one of the reasons I never use Pay. But, like the original Wallet/Verizon battle with Google, they can only do what the card companies let them.

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