Missouri Lawmaker Wants Customers To Show ID When Using Apple Pay
We’re still scratching our heads over this one. A Missouri lawmaker is looking to thwart one of the many advantages of using mobile payment services like Apple Pay — paying without the need to show an ID. Rep. Joshua Peters of St. Louis (D) wants to pass legislation that would require a customer to show a driver’s license or an alternate form of government ID when paying with mobile payment services like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
According to Peters, showing an ID would help to cut down on fraud if a person were to lose his or her smartphone. And if a merchant fails to “card” customers that use a mobile device for payment, it would be responsible for purchases made if the device was previously reported as stolen.
In the case of Apple Pay, this sort of legislation would be tremendous overkill. If an iPhone is lost or stolen, the rightful owner would have the ability to disable the device using the Find My iPhone service. And even if a stolen iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus wasn’t nuked OTA via Find My iPhone, the thief still wouldn’t be able to use Apple Pay because they would need the original owner’s fingerprint in order to complete the transaction.
This just seems to us like a rather ridiculous overreach on the part of Rep. Peters, and shows a complete lack of education with regards to modern, mobile electronic payment services. But then again, Missouri is the “Show Me State”, so maybe this is just par for the course.
