
These days, we live in a world which binary codes (o,1) have the power to do everything. This power, starts from sending an electronic email to the breaks in today’s cars (equipped with ECU). Electronic banking is one of these cases. As you know, e-banking is expanding day by day. Information technology could facilitate this field a lot and injected many developments and advancement to e-banking. One of the latest achievements in this area is electronic wallets and specially, Google Wallet.
What is Google wallet?
It’s been a long time that Google has been supported the NFC technology in its favorite operating system Android. NFC has a method to exchange information wireless and in short range (for security reasons). Google also contracted many major financial institutions around the world, so they accept and support payment via NFC. In the other words, users can perform their banking and financial procedures in their Android phone. Thus, now in a restaurant for the payment, you don’t need your credit card. Your cell phone will do the payment via NFC. You can even choose which card you want to do the payment inside the phone, and let the Google Wallet and NFC do the rest. Google Wallet is a service for discussed procedures. In simple words, it can be said that, Google Wallet, do all your e-payments with the cell phone without the need of physical credit cards and just by getting your device close to the payment machine. The security has been considered much in Google Wallet. In this service, two parts, hardware and software, both are highly secured independently. In addition, these two sections operate separately from the device hardware and Android. In the hardware part which related to NFC chip, it should bear in mind that, as the NFC chip has a very low frequency range, about 10 cm, practically, thieves can’t hack it wireless. Furthermore, other measures have been considered in NFC for higher security. For example in software part, having the password for the whole operation will enhance the security in exchanging information. Conversely, it is still need more work to be done in this area, so the Google Wallet doesn't fail.
How does Google Wallet work?
Google Wallet has a separate interface in Android. By entering the application you just need to enter the card details such as Card numbers and password. Finally by choosing an overall password for the whole application you can increase the security of exchanging the financial information. In the application, you have the option to enter any data, from the credit, debit or prepaid cards. Now to buy something, it is enough to bring your phone close to the payment device on the cashier and with entering your password you can hear a small beep, which is confirming that the transaction is done. Google Wallet has been designed to capture and save all the payment information such as time and location for future use.
Pros of Google Wallet
• Ease and speed in shopping
• Add or remove cards and select which card to pay with
• Notification about the sales and auctions of different stores
• Access to all purchases information
• Free services in creating the Google Wallet account for the buyers or sellers
• No need to carry credit, debit or prepaid cards
Cons of Google Wallet
• The security is the most important concern for the users, although the Google Wallet has a very high security