Rooted Galaxy Smartphones Blocked From Using Samsung Pay

If the multitude of companies telling us are to be believed, mobile payments are going to be a huge part of our future. It's not exactly hard to understand why. Most of us tote around a phone at all times, and in some cases, it might be easier to take out of a pocket than a wallet. But, with most things that are convenient, there are some caveats to be aware of. In this case, the biggest one is security.

While Samsung has proven in the past that it doesn't mine compromising its users' security, where money's concerned, it means business. So, to prevent possible exploitation, it's been discovered that Samsung Pay will simply not work on a rooted phone, or "unauthorized modification" as Samsung calls it.

This move is understandable. If someone roots their phone, it means that a custom ROM bundled with mischievous software could be used, though I admit I am finding it hard to know what kind of modifications could affect a service that needs to properly handshake to work. Nonetheless, this move is no doubt going to affect a lot of people, especially enthusiasts who'd likely be the first ones to take advantage of Samsung Pay.

It seems users will have to simply forego using the service in favor of having full control over their device, or use the convenience feature and be stuck with whatever Samsung bundled on the phone.