Snippets

The governor of the Bank of England, the Canadian ex-Goldman Sachs economist Mr. Mark Carney, recently suggested that digital ID cards " would make it safer for people to access money online ”. He is sort-of-correct. We do indeed need to do something to stop the relentless increase in identity-related fraud and scams (such as, for example, “ man receives surprise message purporting to be from Mark Carney offering multimillion-dollar sum ”) I don’t think that a digital ID card is quite the solution, because I prefer a more sophisticated solution that is based on digital identities for everything and multiple personae for transactional purposes, but that’s splitting hairs at high level. I am right behind Mr. Carney on this, although I think he was wrong when he went on to say that such a scheme could also prove controversial and could " only be introduced by the Government rather than the Bank of England ”. In my opinion he is mixing up the controversial idea of a national dig...

xxx For monetary enthusiasts like myself, it provides a great illustration of the many different functions packaged into the thing we call "money." These functions needn't be unified into one object or instrument. They can be split up, so that the instruments that we pass from hand to hand (or from phone to phone), the so-called medium-of-exchange, no longer correspond to the symbol used for pricing, the unit-of-account. From Moneyness: The Haitian dollar . xxx

xxx Digital ID cards would make it safer for people to access money online, Mark Carney has suggested, as the boom in internet banking and the death of bank branches leads to new types of identification and financial security. The Bank of England Governor raised the idea as a way to harmonise the various different systems of online identity checking. From Digital ID cards could keep online finance safe, says Carney . xxx

xxx The tie-up with R3 will take place over a new gateway, dubbed gpi Link, which is intended to plug third party e-commerce and trade plaforms directly into gpi. From Swift to open gpi gateway to R3 blockchain . xxx

A few years ago I raised the issue of the impact of changing technology on the choices available to those wanting to redesign money in a European context. My main post was that the cost of creating new currencies has collapsed because of the internet, mobile phones and smart chips everywhere. In the context of the serious economic problems in Greece at the time, I said that Greece could pull out of the Euro and create a “hard e-drachma” . I went on to point out that there is no need for physical currency.any more. So what? Well, as I remember from the time, I was loafing in bed with a cup of tea listening to Radio 4 when “A Point of View” came on. I listened, spellbound, to the historian Sir David Cannadine talking about the history of currency unions in Europe. In ten minutes, David gave one of the most interesting talks I have ever heard on BBC Radio 4 (you can read it here ). David’s description of the Latin Monetary Union (LMU) was concise and brilliant. Follow the link and re...

xxx Dubbed 'Aber', the new unit of account will be used for financial settlements between the Kingdom and UAE through the use of digital ledger technologies. From Saudi Arabia and UAE explore shared digital currency . xxx

xxx "But some fintech firms say they would be reluctant to invest the time and resources in applying for and maintaining the new OCC fintech license unless the Fed gives them access to the payments system, so they will not have to depend on banks to route money for them. Direct access would eliminate bank routing fees, a top-five operating cost for many fintech firms, and would allow them to compete more effectively with traditional lenders." From "Fintech firms want to shake up banking, and that worries the Fed | Reuters" . xxx

xxx "Unfortunately, several high-ranking Fed members have recently expressed reticence about letting fintechs in. This concern is somewhat misplaced, and the Fed should seek to open up the payments system." From "Fed should open the payments system to fintechs | American Banker" . I agree with Brian Knight about this. We need to further separate payments from banking and there is no reason not allow a new class of institutions access to the payments networks while preventing them from engaging in risky credit creation.

xxx "According to reports coming from CCN, a hacker is selling hacked KYC data on the dark web, data which the hacker claims to have collected from some of the cryptocurrency exchanges such as Poloniex, Binance, Bittrex and Bitfinex." From "Hacked KYC data collected from top exchanges for sale on the dark web - Cryptoline News" . Well, whether this is true or not, it does rather point to the fact that there are better places to store KYC data. Places that have extensive security in place already and spend gazillions on maintaining it, places that are regulated and held to account your identity is stolen and places where the costs of collecting KYC are high and rising. We call these places “banks” and it seems rather obvious to me that cryptocurrency exchanges, mobile phone shops and, for that matter, other banks should be using this bank KYC data instead of trying to do their own expensive and imperfect KYC in parallel.

xxx "or now EBA (5th Oct) has clarified that SMS does constitute as SCA (possession) feature - EBA Single Rulebook Q&A They have also quoted RTS article 22, which refers to confidentiality, integrity & security. While creating the OTP with dynamic linking is SCA compliant but transmission & delivery medium is debated. Article 22.1 Payment service providers shall ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the personalised security credentials of the payment service user, including authentication codes, during all phases of the authentication Article 22.4 Payment service providers shall ensure that the processing and routing of personalised security credentials and of the authentication codes generated in accordance with Chapter II take place in secure environments in accordance with strong and widely recognised industry standards EBA has gone with practicality rather than enforcing RTS stringently. SMS has long been stable form of second factor authentication in l...

  The new, revised paperback edition of Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin has been published by the London Publishing Partnership. Here is the foreword by Andrew Haldane of the Bank of England: Often, the most interesting issues in economics arise from the intersection—sometimes the collision—between technology and society. To take an example, there is no more topical, and vexed, an economic issue right now than the impact of new technol- ogies (such as robots, artificial intelligence and big data) on the world of work (individuals, sectors, communities, societies). Indeed, history makes clear that this creative friction between technology and work has existed for many millennia. Money is another issue that, through the ages, has illustrated vividly this complex tango between societies and technologies. Money is a technology—indeed, a key one for discharging obligations between people, for keeping score in the economy, for facilitating trade, finance and commerce. But money is also a so...

xxx "Bare Conductive’s focus is on solutions which connect basic objects, rather than more complex devices. Their 3D-printable sensors can be adhered to surfaces and spaces to provide very low power connectivity – an interactive wall, for instance, or a connected sink. An ingenious form of conductive paint allows electrical wires to be ‘drawn’ across surfaces with liquid dispensers, allows such previously unthought of innovations like connected wallpaper to be knocked out cheaply and with ease" From "Top 5 IoT Innovations at CES 2019 that Caught our Eye | Internet of Things" . xxx

xxx "Yet it seems to me there is little reason to imagine that the people who run large technology companies have any vested interest in allowing pre-digital folkways to interfere with their 21st-century engineering and business models, any more than 19th-century robber barons showed any particular regard for laws or people that got in the way of their railroads and steel trusts." From "Is Big Tech Merging With Big Brother? Kinda Looks Like It | WIRED" . xxx

xxx Furthermore, Roubini expressed his idea that CBDCs will dominate cryptocurrencies and change banking in radical ways. Moreover, while he foresees that fintech will change finance and that cash will disappear, he is of the opinion that blockchain and crypto won’t play a role in this change. From Crypto Critic Nouriel Roubini: Blockchain is ‘No Better Than an Excel Spreadsheet’ . xxx

xxx "Patisserie Valerie report talks of fake invoices and ledgers" From "Patisserie Valerie report talks of fake invoices and ledgers | Financial Times" . xxx

xxx "The report, which scrutinises the role of five individuals, identifies a supplier who allegedly assisted the fraud by submitting fake invoices for refurbishment work. Others are certain members of finance staff who, in emails, discussed whether they should adjust fake ledgers to take account of roadworks outside stores." From "Patisserie Valerie report talks of fake invoices and ledgers | Financial Times" . xxx

xxx "Given the choice and an ideal world, I’d abolish cash tomorrow and have done away with cheques a decade ago. But in the absence of an ideal world, cash does remain a lifeline for many vulnerable groups… Government has a profound responsibility to those vulnerable groups to smooth that transition, and to find creative ways to hasten it so that nobody is left behind." From "Matt Warman MP: As cashless transactions become the norm, Gov't must ensure most vulnerable are not left behind | PoliticsHome.com" . I completely agree with the Honourable Member for Boston & Skegness on this one and have long said that we must plan for cashlessness, not simply slide into cashlessness as Sweden has done.

xxx "‘It’ll cost you less,’ a local tradesman said to me recently, ‘if you pay in cash.’" From "Matt Warman MP: As cashless transactions become the norm, Gov't must ensure most vulnerable are not left behind | PoliticsHome.com" . xxx

xxx "The other major change is the use of ‘dead drops’ instead of the postal system which has proven vulnerable to tracking and interception." From "Dropgangs, or the future of darknet markets • Opaque Link" . xxx

xxx "China's social credit system was launched in 2014 and is supposed to be nationwide by 2020." From "China Social Credit: The odd reality of life under China's credit system | WIRED UK" . xxx xxx China’s plan to judge each of its 1.3 billion people based on their social behavior is moving a step closer to reality, with Beijing set to adopt a lifelong points program by 2021 that assigns personalized ratings for each resident. The capital city will pool data from several departments to reward and punish some 22 million citizens based on their actions and reputations by the end of 2020, according to a plan posted on the Beijing municipal government’s website on Monday. Those with better so-called social credit will get “green channel” benefits while those who violate laws will find life more difficult. From Beijing to Judge Every Resident Based on Behavior by End of 2020 - Bloomberg .   xxx xxx There is a fear that people with contacts and re...

I had the good fortune to attend the Australian Payment Summit 2018 in Sydney at the end of last year, chairing the panel on Digital Currency and giving the first day closing keynote on the impact of artificial intelligence in the transaction space (I was developing the “where are the customers’ bots” theme).  Naturally, one of the areas that I wanted to find out about was digital identity. As in many other countries, Australia is trying to deal with a complex mixture of requirements, goals and constraints for some form of digital identity infrastructure and it is far from clear what is going to happen. In the lead up to the event, the CTO of Westpac was quoted saying that “ if you are going to move to a more open data-connected world, which we clearly are… you have to solve the problem of digital identity ”. Well, yes. I agree 100%. But how? There is scepticism about a government solution. The Department of Home Affairs is looking at a single national digital identifier, which I a...

xxx "Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, plans to integrate the social network’s messaging services — WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger — asserting his control over the company’s sprawling divisions at a time when its business has been battered by scandals. The move, described by four people involved in the effort, requires thousands of Facebook employees to reconfigure how WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger function at their most basic levels. While all three services will continue operating as stand-alone apps, their underlying messaging infrastructure will be unified, the people said. Facebook is still in the early stages of the work and plans to complete it by the end of this year or in early 2020, they said. Mr. Zuckerberg has also ordered all of the apps to incorporate end-to-end encryption" From "Zuckerberg Plans to Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger - The New York Times" . xxx

You’ve probably all heard of St. Valentine. He was a third century Roman who helped Christians to escape from prison . He did this by giving them a secret password to give to the guards. But he himself forgot the secret password and when he’d got it wrong for the third time, he was locked in and starved to death. Or something like that, I can’t remember the exact story. Anyway, it’s because of this that St. Valentine became the patron saint of customer verification methods (CVMs). Now, in ancient times, when European retailers could not go online to verify PINs due to the anticompetitive pricing of the monopoly public telephone providers, it made sense to verify the PIN locally (ie, offline).  This is why, in England, we call 14th February "St. Valetine’s Day” and celebrate the anniversary of the introduction of chip and PIN on 14th February 2006. That special day, often unromantically dubbed “ chip and PIN day ” by people who do not truly love payments, was the day we stopped p...

xxx "‘The SMS channel is fundamentally insecure and there are doubts over whether it actually complies with the second Payments Services Directive (PSD2),’ says Martin. While SMS provides a separate execution environment, it doesn’t address a number of needs under PSD2, including malware detection, dynamic linking and software authenticity." From "API obsession means banks may miss PSD2’s SCA deadline » PaymentEye" . xxx

xxx The goal of this group is to be the catalyst for a profound change in the composition of our emerging payments community From Project Women in PayTech . xxx

xxx In the scenario where a bank seeks to revoke a specific third party service, the EBA has confirmed that only the customer "has the right to withdraw the consent after it has been provided" and that the bank "cannot revoke the consent". From Open banking: clarity provided for banks over 'opt outs' and revoking consent . So if you give the gym permission to access your bank account, you have to go back to the gym to revoke it. 

xxx The aim for online ticket platforms is to leverage the latest in digital wallets to help drive sales From How Ticket Platforms Optimize Mobile Checkout | PYMNTS.com . xxx

xxx So what role should biometric authentication technology play in the future of the UK’s public services? From Tackling the UK Government’s identity crisis . Authentication against what? Using our non-existent national identity card or our almost non-existent national identity verification scheme?

One of the most important aspects of post-modern identity strategy, as opposed to an Industrial Age identity strategy, is that it is founded on multiple identities. Elizabeth Andersen puts it succinctly, saying that allowing people to have different identities in different domains is freedom . She says "At church, I’m one thing. At work, I’m something else. I’m something else at home, or with my friends. The ability not to have an identity that one carries from sphere to sphere but, rather, to be able to slip in and adopt whatever values and norms are appropriate while retaining one’s identities in other domains?… That is what it is to be free”. I have to say that I am very sympathetic to this view. A fundamental defence against inappropriate and dangerous tracking, tracing and monitoring of individuals is to allow them to choose their identities on a per-transaction basis. Not so much “where do you want to go today” of the old Microsoft advertisement, more of a “who do you want...

xxx Cumberland Farms is a prime example of this approach. Drivers who fill up at one of the privately held chain’s gas stations can save 10 cents a gallon if they sign up for its SmartPay app, which connects directly to their bank account and is much like paying utility bills or rent. The company says its users have saved more than $100 million by using the SmartPay app. From Retailers Embrace Payment Apps to Sidestep $90 Billion in Swipe Fees - Bloomberg . xxx

xxx Retailers have been trying for years to escape the clutches of the credit-card companies, which this year will levy more than $90 billion in swipe fees on an industry already struggling to navigate the shift online. Some believe the answer lies in payment apps. From Retailers Embrace Payment Apps to Sidestep $90 Billion in Swipe Fees - Bloomberg . xxx

xxx Usually, cost-conscious small businesses operate cash-only to avoid card processing fees. But cash also has hidden costs, Blair said: armored vehicles taking money to banks. An extra hour for workers to close out the register. Employees swiping money from the till. And some of their places had been robbed. From Backlash building to cashless movement: 'We must ask ourselves always, not just "can we"? But "should we"?' - Chicago Tribune . xxx

xxx Surfside, a popular 24-hour Mexican eatery, doesn't take cash. No cash means no register for robbers to empty out, no bills for workers to slip into their pockets and no change counting holding up lines. From Backlash building to cashless movement: 'We must ask ourselves always, not just "can we"? But "should we"?' - Chicago Tribune . xxx

xxx The Canadian Bankers Association says Canada must create a digital identification system From Canada needs a digital ID system, bankers association says | Richmond News . xxx

xxx On 26 October, someone stored a link to the video in a transaction of the cryptocurrency ZCoin. Cryptocurrencies use blockchain technology, which is essentially an online system of recording transactions simultaneously on multiple computers using what’s called “blocks”. Because it’s recoded in many places, it can never be entirely removed – even by the person who initiated the transaction. Through block number 111089, the Thai rap video is now visible to anyone, anywhere. Marc Rocas, a board member of the non-profit association Blockchain Catalunya, said that information in the blockchain cannot be deleted while the network is running: “In order to shut down a blockchain network, you have to shut down all the devices, all the servers, all the computers that are running this blockchain.” Block number 111089 carries only a link to the video, which is actually stored on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). IPFS acts as a type of alternate internet where content is not centrally ...

xxx Similar to how Go shoppers can’t get beyond the lobby without an app and an Amazon account, cashless stores, Torres says, create public spaces that all but bar low-income people from entry. From Why Cashless Stores Hurt Poor Shoppers - The Atlantic . xxx

M-PESA, as a post on the Harvard Business School blog says, is "the protagonist in a tale of global prosperity to which we all can look for lessons on the impact of market-creating innovations”, going on to say that its "roots are far more humble”. They are indeed, and if you are interested in learning more about them, I wrote a detailed post about the origins of M-PESA (and Consult Hyperion’s role in the shaping of this amazing scheme) and the success factors. The most important of these was the role of regulator: the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) didn’t ban it. One of the reason for the slow take-up of mobile payments (and the related slow improvement in financial inclusion) in other countries was the regulators’ insistence that banks be involved in the development and delivery of mobile payment schemes. The results were predictable. (Here’s a post from a few years ago looking the situation in India, for example).

xxx The need for secure online identities will become more urgent as the world digitises further. Connected devices are steadily infiltrating homes. From Establishing identity is a vital, risky and changing business - Making you you . xxx

xxx The 19th century saw the idea of such unique and authoritatively recorded relationships established as the primary form of identity across the metropolitan and colonial world. This was in part a response to the increasingly anonymous milieu of the Industrial Revolution’s cities, where identity could be assumed and shucked off more easily than in smaller communities. From Establishing identity is a vital, risky and changing business - Making you you . xxx

xxx In future it may be possible to ask simply, “Do you have the qualities I seek in a counterparty to this deal?” and receive an answer you can trust from someone whose name you need not know. From Establishing identity is a vital, risky and changing business - Making you you . In fact, as I’ve been writing for the last couple of decade, the name of your counterparty is in most transactions the least interesting thing that you need to know.

xxx The power governments guard in the physical world has, online, been taken up by Facebook and Google. Nine out of ten non-Chinese websites that allow their users to log in with the credentials provided by another company use one or both of them. From Establishing identity is a vital, risky and changing business - Making you you . xxx

xxx Britons, or at least those whose political voices are heard, have for generations seen the idea of being asked for their papers by an organ of the state as disturbingly continental. From Establishing identity is a vital, risky and changing business - Making you you . xxx

xxx Like Aadhaar, Facebook is a juggernaut dimly understood even by its own creators. From Establishing identity is a vital, risky and changing business - Making you you . xxx

xxx The first is that any individual’s identity is contingent on the recognition of others. The second is that anything like a modern life is rendered all but impossible when that recognition is not forthcoming, or is suborned. From Establishing identity is a vital, risky and changing business - Making you you . xxx

xxx Halifax says: “The account to which she authorised the payment to be sent was opened using industry-wide acceptable documentation. From Uncovered: cruel scam so slick even the vigilant can be duped | Money | The Guardian . xxx

xxx AAMVA Director of Identity Management Geoff Slagle said he does not believe there will be wide scale adoption of the digital licenses by either states or citizens anytime soon because: ·    No standards are currently in place for the actual DDL and how it will be used on the smartphone. ·    Equipment capability for law enforcement to use during traffic stops needs to be standardized. ·    Consumer apprehension over technology and privacy concerns will continue. From Is a Digital Driver’s License in your Future?: NMA Weekly E-Newsletter #476 - National Motorists Association . xxx

xxx Ahead of the launch of its first self-lacing basketball shoes this week, Nike just posted a major tease to get people hyped. And while we can't see what the sneakers actually look like, it does appear you'll be able to adjust their power laces using your smartphone, From Nike teases self-lacing shoes you can control from your phone . xxx

XXX What are we going to do about the continuous stream of data breaches, identity thefts, bot wars on social media and varied privacy catastrophes that characterise our days? I’ve already said many times that we need an identity infrastructure  for the world in which we now live. We need an identity infrastructure that deals with the realities of the modern world, the world of the Nth industrial revolution (where N is 4, or 5, or something similar). But why should this infrastructure be a government priority? Well, it’s because of the nature of that environment. It’s not simply about making life easier when you log in to your bank or to do your taxes. Identity is far more important than that. I see identity as vital national infrastructure , which is why I want the British government to do something about it. In recent times they have failed in both the physical nation (with the identity card system abandoned by the Conservative government in 2010 after £300m had been spent on it ) ...

xxx Social media was actually developed for very positive reasons and we don’t want it to become a platform which certain people can’t go near because of some of the bile that is spat out with a cloak of anonymity.” From Government considering creating an online safety commissioner, minister reveals . xxx

Next month, a year behind schedule, the UK Government’s new online age verification (AV) law comes into effect. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the section of the British government “in charge” of the web decided to stop children from watching porn online (which I’m sure we would all agree with) by bringing in the new law. It excludes websites on which less than a third of content is pornographic material and where it is provided free of charge . So web sites that have more than one-third pornographic content (I know, I know, it depends on what you mean by one-third and it depends what you mean by pornographic and it won’t make the slightest difference, but whatever) will have to implement age verification.  But how? When this legislation was originally introduced, OFCOM put forward the idea of using credit cards or the electoral register, both of which are bad ideas and certain to lead to disaster. Hence I was surprised to see in the The Daily Mail, that one of t...

xxx According to the Riksbank’s most recent report, the e-krona might offer some anonymity. However, the Riksbank says it will only enable anonymous transactions in a way that conforms to current anti-money-laundering and e-money regulations. From Goodbye Cash, Hello E-krona | AIER . xxx

xxx The joint new infrastructure (serving 27 million customers) will enable the provision of payments at an "at, or near, zero cost"; From Nordics P27 initiative could drive common infrastructure for direct... . xxx

xxx The Federal Reserve Board along with four other regulatory agencies - the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency - say they want depository institutions to explore innovative approaches to both meet their Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) compliance obligations and to further strengthen the financial system against illicit financial activity. From US regulators push for new technology to tackle financial crime . xxx

xxx Amazon Pay Accepted Here? Web Giant Aims to Put Digital Wallet in Stores From Amazon Pay Accepted Here? Web Giant Aims to Put Digital Wallet in Stores - WSJ . xxx

xxx Already there have been reports of residents using black data markets to boost their scores so they could be approved for a low-interest loan. From China's worrying mandatory social credit system | Global-is-Asian . xxx

xxx There is a fear that people with contacts and resources will be able to rig their credit scores to enjoy the benefits. In a country where corruption is commonplace it's not impossible to see the social credit system increasing the divide between the haves and have-nots. From China's worrying mandatory social credit system | Global-is-Asian . xxx

xxx MindGeek has promised its AgeID system does not store any personal information on its users. Instead, the verification system only keeps "standard technical data" to prevent fraud as well as that protected login. From Porn site confirms plans to verify YOUR age under new UK law | Express.co.uk . xxx

xxx t’s onerous enough to ask consumers to register with one age verification database, let alone expecting them to sign up for AgeChecked, AVSecure, AVYourself, and Yoti in addition to AgeID. From Why the world’s biggest porn company is backing the UK’s new age law - The Verge . xxx

xxx Websites which harbour content which is more than one-third pornographic will be obliged to verify the age of UK visitors under the new law. From Porn users will have to prove their age before they can view images online | Daily Mail Online . xxx

xxx 64% of decision-makers said they believe that the new regulations have already given large tech companies an advantage over traditional banks From Open Banking year one: Insights from the CMA9 and more . xxx

xxx Barclays enabled customers to add current accounts from other banks into their existing mobile banking application in September 2018 and today, over six million users use this service to manage their day-to-day finances. From Open Banking year one: Insights from the CMA9 and more . xxx

xxx Apart from anything else, we expect to see a resurgence of interest in the “decoupled debit” proposition whereby platform-provided strong authentication to retailer apps will allow them to bypass the existing card infrastructure (with some projections indicating that a third of European card volume could disappear in the coming years) and perhaps even the physical POS itself. From Merchants, payments and the open banking ecosystem | Consult Hyperion . xxx

xxx A recent Consult Hyperion survey found that more than 90% of merchants want to use PSD2 to reduce card fees, three-quarters of them also want to use it to reduce the impact of fraud and data breaches. An Accenture survey last year also found that half of the retailers they surveyed want to use customers’ bank account data to provide special offers and customised services at POS. From Merchants, payments and the open banking ecosystem | Consult Hyperion . xxx

xxx The kidnappers are said to have asked for the ransom to be paid in cryptocurrency Monero, which can be sent and received anonymously. From Kidnappers demand £8 million ransom for wife of one of Norway's richest men after disappearance | Daily Mail Online . xxx

The Irish central bank's decision to authorise Google Payment Ireland under the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) attracted a fair bit of comment, some of it informed. As Finextra pointed out, this does not grant Google with the ability to offer a full banking service including bank accounts, but they don’t need to because with a PI licence they can obtain API access to bank accounts under PSD2. The licence means that Google can offer PSD2 Payment Initiation Services (PIS) and Account Information services (AIS) It’s an obvious move for Google. My good friend Simon Lelieveldt noted in his blog on the subject , that this makes "Google Brexit-proof and PSD2-proof” which would be reason enough to do it, but it’s important to understand just how disruptive this licence might be. I wrote about this back in 2017 for Wired , pointing out that changes in regulation " mean the tech giants will soon be able to access customers' bank account data ” and that companies s...

xxx "Every time you use your gadget, whether you like it or not, whether you turn on your location or not, somebody can find out exactly where you are, exactly what your interests are and exactly what you are scared of," Patriarch Kirill From Smartphone users warned to be careful of the Antichrist - BBC News . xxx xxx T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are selling access to their customers’ location data, and that data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to possess it, letting them track most phones in the country. From T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T Are Selling Customers' Real-Time Location Data, And It's Falling Into the Wrong Hands . xxx

xxx Yet there are two problems with the attempt to revive pre-Bork and Bowman antitrust. First, the technical difficulties of getting intervention right, in a context where it goes against the grain. The software industry is prone to natural monopoly or oligopoly. Software reduces friction along existing value chains, often reconfiguring industries into two-sided markets, with platforms intermediating between providers and consumers. And, as the Nobel laureate Jean Tirole has shown, two-sided markets produce just a few dominant firms—an effect compounded in software markets by the aggressive use of patents and a deliberately engineered lack of interoperability. From Why it’s not as simple as “breaking up big tech” | Prospect Magazine . xxx

The central bank's decision to authorise Google Payment Ireland under the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2)   As Finextra pointed out, this does not grant Google with the ability to offer a full banking service including bank accounts, but they don’t need to because with a PI licence they can obtain API access to bank accounts under PSD2.

There is a character flaw in some people (eg, me) which means when they see something that is obviously wrong on Twitter they feel compelled to comment. This is why I couldn’t stop myself from posting a few somewhat negative comments about an “infographic” on the connection between AI and the blockchain, even though I could have just ignored the odd combination of cargo cult mystical thinking and a near-random jumble of assorted IT concepts and gone about my day. When it came down to it though, I just couldn’t. So I decided to write a blog post about it instead. The particular graphic made a number of points, none of which are interesting enough to enumerate here, but at its heart was the basic view set out, here for example , that blockchain and AI are at the opposite ends of a technology spectrum: one fostering centralised intelligence on closed data platforms, the other promoting decentralised applications in an open-data environment. Then, as the infographic “explained”, the techn...

xxx "Credit service agency Experian has reported that the UK loses over £190 billion per year to fraud. That staggering number comes from its Annual Fraud Indicator 2017 report. £190 billion is equivalent to £10,000 per family. It is more than 9% of the UK’s projected GDP for 2017" From "Experian claims fraud costs UK £190 billion per year -" . xxx

xxx "The paper shows that over one million individuals are sanctioned for fraud offences each year and the great majority do not trouble the criminal justice system." From "‘The iceberg beneath the sea’, fraudsters and their punishment through non-criminal justice in the ‘fraud justice network’ in England and Wales - ScienceDirect" . xxx

xxx "In Who Can You Trust? the writer Rachel Botsman argues that we are at the start of an exciting third age in human trust. The first age was local, when we lived in small groups and everyone knew everyone else. The second, which arrived with the industrial age, was institutional, in which we were able to confidently do business with strangers thanks to a nexus of laws and contracts. The third chapter is distributed, in which trust, instead of flowing vertically via institutions, flows horizontally through a vast, algorithmically organised network. The neighbourly interactions central to pre-industrial society have been recreated, except now a neighbour is anyone with whom we share an app." From "How algorithms help us trust strangers" . xxx

xxx "Contrary to what you might expect, a world suffused with deepfakes and other artificially generated photographic images won’t be one in which ‘fake’ images are routinely believed to be real, but one in which ‘real’ images are routinely believed to be fake" From "How Much of the Internet Is Fake?" . xxx

xxx "According to the report ‘Cashless Vision,’ compiled by a panel of experts under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, cashless systems at retail stores will save manpower at a time when Japan desperately needs to improve productivity amid a labor shortage and declining population. Also, shifting from cash to digital money will improve the transparency of money flows that will enable the government to collect taxes more accurately and efficiently. The cost of handling cash is increasingly worrying businesses. Nomura Research Institute estimates such costs exceed ¥1 trillion annually." From "Japan hesitantly moves toward a cashless society | The Japan Times" . xxx

xxx "A majority of US internet users said they wouldn't change their frequency of visits to a favorite restaurant if it went cashless, according to a January 2018 survey by CivicScience. Just 11% would go less, and 15% would stop altogether." From "Are Consumers Ready for a Cashless Society? | eMarketer Retail" . xxx

xxx "Policymakers and regulators around the world must face the fact that the reasoning behind traditional competition measures is no longer valid." From "Jean Tirole | Regulating the disrupters - Livemint" . xxx

xxx Under current rules, vendors who take cashless payments are required to have access to a bank account. But to have an account they must satisfy a host of proof of identity requirements, including a fixed address. From Big Issue asks banks to help vendors in cashless society | Financial Times . xxx

xxx Psychologists Barry Singer and Victor Benassi constructed an experiment to demonstrate and explore the phenomenon that amateur psychic demonstrations compel many people to strong occult beliefs. A magician was presented to two separate classes as a “psychic,” to two other classes correctly as a “magician.” Two-thirds of all the classes believed he was a psychic. Even large numbers of those who had been shown how the tricks were done still believed they were “psychic.” One conclusion: “People can stubbornly maintain a belief about someone’s psychic powers when they know better.” We are typically inept at reasoning through even the simplest conceptual task involving alternative hypotheses. From Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) - CSI . xxx

xxx We also did not find lessons learned or practical insights, as are available for other technologies in development." From Blockchain study finds 0.00% success rate and vendors don't call back when asked for evidence • The Register . xxx