The most recent volley in the NFC payment war between Apple Pay and the MCX consortium’s CurrentC mobile payment service has been fired.
And it has a lot to do with app reviews.
Per 9to5Mac, a number of users have expressed their displeasure with the CurrentC app, at the time of writing, the app having accumulated 2,856 1-star reviews against a total of just 30 reviews giving it 2 stars or more …
The movement to boycott merchants who are members of the MCX consortium also seems to be growing in popularity, gaining a Boycott MCX website with a full list of members. When you click on the name of a consortium member (CVS Pharmacy in the example shown below), a list of competing stores who accept or plan to accept Apple Pay is displayed.
Having been criticized for its clunky use of QR codes, MCX said yesterday that CurrentC may “pivot to NFC over time.” The company had earlier said that it was “entirely possible” that it would do a U-turn on its current exclusivity requirement and allow merchants to accept both CurrentC and Apple Pay at some point in the future, though no certainty or timeframe was offered.
MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson also expanded on yesterday’s less than convincing assurances about data security, saying that the recent hack “does not impact the rollout of CurrentC at all” – that the company expected attacks and will “deal with them.”
The company fixed the broken link to its privacy policy, in which it describes the ways in which it shares information collected about consumers using the CurrentC payment system. This confirms that MCX shares information with merchants, as well as with a range of third-parties.
MCX may share or disclose your information as follows:
• To MCX Merchants based on your purchase of goods and services from that MCX Merchant, or participation in that MCX Merchant’s loyalty/rewards program;
• To Third-Party Providers involved in providing the Services;
• To Third-Party Providers using your information on MCX’s behalf in connection with opening a CurrentC™ Account;
• To Third-Party Providers using your information on MCX’s behalf in connection with loading a Payment Account into CurrentC™;
• To Third-Party Providers using your information on MCX’s behalf in connection with a potential or actual Payment Account transaction;
• To Third-Party Providers or MCX Merchants using your information on MCX’s behalf in connection with loading of and use of a Loyalty/Rewards Account in CurrentC™;
• To Third-Party Providers using your information to evaluate and enhance the performance of the Services;
• Based on MCX’s sole discretion that such disclosure is necessary to protect the rights or safety of any person or entity; or
• Based on MCX’s sole discretion that disclosure is necessary to detect or respond to instances of potential or actual fraud or other illegal activities, to respond to a law enforcement agency’s request for information or cooperation in an investigation, or to respond to judicial process or other valid government investigation or process.
Apple Pay, in contrast, does not even share your card details with merchants.
The full CurrentC privacy policy can be seen here, though be warned that it is epic in its vagaries.
So, it’s clunky, poorly supported and shares your information with every human being that’ll pay its parent company money? Yep…sign me up!!!