In a nice coda to my post on The Corona Virus and the Cashless Society, C/net has an interesting article speculating that COVID-19 will advance the uptake of digital wallets from companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon. The article is a little breathless, suggesting, for example, that “Apple, Google, Samsung, Facebook, Amazon and many others are in the midst of a pitched effort to take over our finances.”
I doubt that these companies have a grand conspiracy to seize control of our money and regulate our buying habits. It’s certainly true, though, that our payment data is valuable and that many companies are willing to pay for it. Apple, for its part, makes a point of emphasizing its commitment to their users’ privacy but most of us would be less sanguine with respect to Google, let alone Facebook.
Still, I think the thrust of the article is correct. Our newfound reluctance to come into direct contact with others or handle things others have touched recently will doubtlessly recede but some of that reluctance will remain and make touchless payment methods more popular. Stores, for their part, will be under increasing pressure to implement them. Even my local super market, after years of stubbornly refusing to enable them, has caved and is now accepting Apple Pay and other touchless pay methods.
The age of digital wallets is definitely coming but the c/net article does point to the need to be careful about privacy concerns. I don’t mind that Apple is trying to make their ecosystem so attractive that I’ll keep buying their kit but I would definitely mind it if they started harvesting and selling my personal data and habits. One thing for sure: the future will be interesting.