Photo: SJY
First, cards went contactless. Now they’re going numberless.
What’s next?
NUMBERLESS CARDS
Mastercard has announced plans to remove 16-digit numbers from their credit and debit cards by 2030, in a move, they say, is designed to ‘stamp out identity theft’ and ‘fraudulent use of cards’.
The numbers currently used to identify cards will be replaced with tokenisation and biometric authentication.
Tokenisation converts the 16-digit card number into a different number – or token – stored on your device, so card information is reportedly never shared when you tap your card or phone or make payments online.
Biometrics, of course, speaks for itself.
The first rollout of these numberless cards will be through a partnership with AMP Bank, but it is expected other banks will follow in the coming 12 months.
Mastercard has said the shift to using tokens or biometric authentication instead of card numbers will likely to be an “easy transition” for customers who use mobile banking.
In 2022, Mastercard added biometric options enabling payments to be made with a smile or wave of the hand.
Piece by piece, digitisation of banking was normalised in increments, and now we are here.
Can these new digital ‘solutions’ be trusted?
PRIVACY CONCERNS
The use of digital banking is not universal.
Many senior consumers and those with a disability don’t use digital banking services.
More importantly, the new measures that will be put in place also have security risks.
Offenders already access victims’ phones through mobile porting and impersonation scams.
These attacks are likely to escalate as new ways to exploit potential vulnerabilities are found.
There are also concerns about biometrics. Unlike credit card details, which can be replaced when exposed in a data breach, biometrics are fixed.
Shifting a focus to biometrics will increase the attractiveness of this data, and potentially opens victims up to ongoing, irreversible damage.
For example, web-based security platform BioStar 2 in the UK exposed the fingerprints and facial recognition details of over one million people in a major security breach in 2019.
Closer to home, IT provider to entertainment companies Outabox is alleged to have exposed facial recognition data of more than one million Australians.
We have seen countless data breaches and hacks breach into the online world in recent years, and now banking is beginning to shift further towards digitisation.
Did the people get any say in this?
‘No scan, no pay’. ‘No scan, no government services’.
This is a trend that is accelerating rapidly here in Australia and across the world.
Where will this path lead?
THE FUTURE PATH
All of these moves are happening, ‘coincidently’, at the exact same time that Digital ID is being rolled out.
Australian banks have just been announced as the first non-government approved entity to have third-party access to digital identity credentials, following the passing of legislation last year.
I could almost guarantee that this move by Mastercard is linked to the Digital ID shift across the world.
Soon, we will go from numberless cards, to the removal of cards all together — as the normalisation continues.
Biometrics and digital credentials will completely replace the need for those bits of plastic.
Smartphone payments are already becoming the norm, removing the need for physical cards. GlobalData revealed a 58% growth in mobile wallet payments in Australia in 2023, to $146.9 billion.
In October 2024, 44% of payments were “device-present” transactions.
The shopping experience, both online and in-store, will become reliant on your biometrics.
Just look to Amazon’s ‘innovative’ “Just-Walk-Out” technology which has already removed the need for consumers to bring a physical credit or debit card all together.
This technology is available at more than 70 Amazon-owned stores, and at more than 85 third-party locations across the US, UK, and Australia.
These include sports stadiums, airports, grocery stores, convenience stores and college campuses.
The technology uses cameras, weight sensors and a combination of advanced AI technologies to enable shoppers in physical stores make purchases without having to swipe or tap their cards at the checkout line.
Digital ID, cashless society, the removal of bank cards, the biometric takeover.
We have warned of this for many years here on the TOTT News website.
Now it is arriving.
Stand up, Australia. Don’t let them roll all over you like this.
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And what happens when the system goes down or a major electricity outage when severe storms hit or any other natural phenomena? What happens when your identity is stolen? Central control of anything is never a good idea, like having all your eggs in one basket, and if that basket should drop and all the eggs smash, you have nothing. Also too much control by banks, governments and corporations and the global elite who will be the only ones to gain from this stupidity.
Another virtual brick in the digital prison.