Issue #67: Get in, loser, we’re going shopping (online)

Luckily, it’s not the wild west; there are some hard rules. Card issuers like American Express and Visa got together in 2006 to form the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, which sets policies to ensure companies that deal in credit card info do so safely. The details of this so-called PCI compliance are super complicated and not worth getting into here, but the broad strokes are that systems are supposed to utilize hardware and software to reduce fraud.

“The purpose is so, as a business, you can do what you do and know that your customers’ data is secure against compromise from the inside and outside,” Levin adds.

These details are also very complex and confusing, but most use encryption, tokenization and data masking. They make it so my actual credit card info isn’t floating around after a purchase — only a disguised version of it.

Apple Pay, for example, “doesn’t store or have access to the original credit, debit, or prepaid card numbers” customers use, according to its website. The info is initially encrypted when someone enters it. Then Apple “decrypts the data, determines your card’s payment network, and re-encrypts the data with a key that only your payment network (or any providers authorized by your card issuer for provisioning and token services) can unlock.” Google Pay and Shop Pay have a similar setup.

This kind of encryption generally makes the systems safe to use, says the National Retail Federation’s Leon Buck.

That’s not to imply I shouldn’t be proactive about protecting my identity, though. Levin advised me to never shop on a shared computer or public wifi because they’re easy for strangers to exploit. I could set up a VPN to make things uber-secure.

He also said to avoid ordering items by clicking on links — if there’s something I want from a store, it’s safer for me to (carefully) type in the URL myself so I know exactly where I’m going.

“Some people go, ‘Well that's a pain in the butt,’” Levin adds. “That has no pain in it compared to the level of pain you'll face if you have to go through the agony of identity theft or credit card compromise.”

When I’m ready to check out, it’s better to use a credit — not debit — card, because most credit card firms offer $0 fraud liability. Many debit card companies limit liability too, but credit card lenders tend to display more urgency in locating stolen money.

Tokenized systems like Google Pay, Shop Pay and Apple Pay are pretty secure, but there are a couple of steps I can take to give myself an extra layer of security. After all, I’m looking out for No. 1.

“The ultimate guardian of the consumer is, has been and will always be the consumer,” Levin says. “No one has more interest in our financial security than we do.”

via GIPHY

Singer Ciara posted a photo last month of her infant son wearing a $700 outfit (!). Win, whose father is football player Russell Wilson, can be seen sporting a blue Gucci sweater with Gucci sneakers and a gold chain. For a baby who is prone to spitting up at any given moment, that’s quite an outfit. But I do admit it’s supersonic, hypnotic, funky fresh.

Meet Caesar, a 13-year-old dachshund who likes to keep up with the news. Caesar knows data security can be ruff, but he’s excited to shop online for the howlidays.