Paysafe Mobile Payments Study Suggests Privacy May Be Bigger Concern

For years, security was the biggest problem that the mobile payments market faced, and not without reason. After all, with so many systems tying into credit or debit cards, a lack of security there could bankrupt a person. Yet with the new Paysafe mobile payments study “Lost in Transaction: Payment Trends 2018,” new concerns have shown up, and while security is still very much near the top, it’s now merely near.

Paysafe tipped us off on this report, sending quite a chunk of it our way. There’s still quite a resistance to mobile payments, but security isn’t the leading reason any more. While 50 percent of consumers consider fraud the biggest reason to not use mobile payments, 52 percent express concerns about how their data is being used.

So there’s clearly some overlap here, but it seems more users are concerned about privacy than security. Though really, a lack of privacy could be called a lack of security, as both cases involve misappropriation of data to some end.

The study continued to drop bombshells on the mobile payments industry, including the belief that 65 percent of respondents held that voice-activated systems aren’t safe. Moreover, 69 percent worry about being accidentally overcharged if using such a system, and 57 percent believe that checkout-free stores are too risky to use. A certain undefined percentage, however, might be willing, if they knew more about such tools.

Further polarization is emerging from there; just over a third—34 percent—of customers would allow a fridge to reorder food, but half of respondents don’t expect to even try using this in the next two or three years. Cash is still king, but its use is waning; 82 percent put cash to work in the last month to make some kind of purchase, but 55 percent of respondents admitted to carrying less cash this year than they did last year.

So while mobile payments clearly have some way to go before they’re really a mainstream option, it’s also clear that they’re seeing plenty of use. It’s going to take some time before all these concerns are put to rest; every technology has a certain adoption life cycle to it, and it’s still fairly early days. Continue proving yourself, mobile payments; you’ll likely be everywhere soon.