Paying Through Facebook May Become a Reality 122
SmartAboutThings writes "A recent story at the NY Times talks about a possible partnership between Facebook and mobile billing company Bango. 'You might want to buy a game or concert tickets or an astrological forecast. Careful where your fingers go. One tap, and a charge will show up on your phone bill. "Frictionless" payment is how Bango puts it. Bango will get a cut of each click; it declined to say how much.' Assuming this doesn't remain a rumor, then quite soon we might be able to pay for goods using our Facebook accounts. Could this help Facebook regain the lost trust for their investors?"
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Lost trust? Shirley you jest!
Never had any...
A surprising number of (dumbasses) lined up to put $38/share worth of trust into facebook... (and look where it got them).
First? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:First? (Score:4, Insightful)
note to self - never ever ever download the facebook app for my phone.
Anyone who hasn't learned that lesson after the FB app had helpfully "updated" all of their contacts wiping out original emails... will not learn it now.
Re:First? (Score:5, Insightful)
So many things want to know your location, contacts, ect.. When they don't need to. Sad time for computing.
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Android is awesome that you can block permissions on CyanogenMod on a very detailed level. (not sure about stock and AOSP since I moved away from Android).
On iOS I jailbreak and run Protect my Privacy. Not as good as the CM one as it simply alerts me whenever an app request location/UID/contacts/music and asks me what I want to do (it even has some weird cloud DB where it suggests you a policy). Works pretty well though.
I find it amazing that a lot of games and others stupid apps ask for my UID. One other
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note to self - never ever ever download the facebook app for my phone.
Well on the bright side, these services will profile you and your friends so well, an app could go ahead and make purchases for you as you sleep. Have faith that technology can know what you want before you know that you want it. You purchases can have the added surprise thrill one might get from birthday or holiday gifts, except for the shrinking bank balance part. And don't worry if you don't have enough cash, the app can automatically get credit for you and show the world what a great person you are b
Do people really want this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Great. Then FB will broadcast to all your friends what it is you just bought. Glad I left over a year ago.
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Shh! Don't you know the first rule of bittorrent?
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Oh, don't you worry your pretty little consumer head about that...
If you are purchasing a luxury item that will provide status and prestige, you can take advantage of 'facebook sponsored purchases' in order to insert news of your purchase more prominently into your friend's facebook pages for just a small additional fee.
If you are buying an embarrassing sex toy, our Founder's Favorite 'They "trust me"; Dumb fucks.', option will keep your little secret just between you and Zuck, 100% guaranteed*!
Mining possibilities (Score:2)
And meanwhile, Facebook's marketing/datamining/advertising department just had a massive orgasm at the though of the new possibilities.
Then, all the writers-of-crappy-apps/scammers/clickjacker/hacker/exploiters started a big circle jerk while thinking of *their* expanded possibilities.
After which all the lawyers (with specialities as diverse as divorce, etc.) all quickly ran buying more lube (and bigger strap-ons) just to be ready.
And I see scareware/let-me-help-you-scrub-your-profile/heal-your-online-reput
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The sex toy thing is kind of obvious, but embarrassment is not the only problem. What if you are buying a gift for a friend or relative and you don't want to spoil the surprise? There are many perfectly innocent reasons why a person would want to keep their purchases secret.
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Better keep an eye on your phone bill, just in case. Just because you're not using your old account doesn't mean that nobody won't.
Re:Right (Score:4, Insightful)
But most people won't see it this way.
If you haven't noticed then I hate to break it to you. But most people are effectively stupid. Oh, they can think and can even pay attention if they really, really feel like they have to. But most of the time they don't. They're normally too self-absorbed and therefore oblivious. And they don't view actual thought and decision-making as privileges to be enjoyed - they see them as horrible burdens to be neglected whenever possible. It's why we have the kind of gov't we have (increasingly out of control). It's why there is Facebook.
Most people will see it as a simpler way to spend what little money they have (at this stage in the game, is an EASIER way to spend money what young people need?)
Consider this next move a sort of IQ (or EQ) test. If you never made a Facebook account, congratulations. You are beyond the test. If you made one sometime ago but stopped using it, again congratulations, everyone makes a mistake once in a while, it's part of being human. If you still have an active Facebook account, that's strike one. If you use that active account to purchase items, knowing everything we know about this company's founder and its business practices, well that's strike two.
If you see us questioning them and you disagree, and your first response is anger/irritation/taking it personally/resentment, instead of explaining why you think we in this thread are wrong, well that's strike three. That's FAIL. You fail the IQ test. Your conversion is now complete: you are now defending and making apology for the parasite that is feeding off your life. You see the same pattern with most extreme forms of religions and fanboyisms and pretty much anything that makes no rational sense.
Re:Right (Score:4, Interesting)
If you never made a Facebook account, congratulations. You are beyond the test. If you made one sometime ago but stopped using it, again congratulations, everyone makes a mistake once in a while, it's part of being human. If you still have an active Facebook account, that's strike one.
I understand the dislike, distrust and sometimes even hatred of things like facebook, but assuming that anyone with an active facebook account isn't aware of the issues seems to be a common mistake around here.
I have a facebook account. I actively use it. I also understand that anything I put there (or others put there about me) (whether marked as private or not) is potentially as public as me scrawling it in 50 metre high letters on the side of a public building in the middle of town (however significantly more socially acceptable).
I still choose to use it, because it's a good way to keep in touch with my many friends around the world; post pictures of my daughter growing up for anyone who cares to see that; organise events with friends in an easy to manage interface; and so on. I do block pretty much every game, "application" and so on and it's almost beyond the pale to imagine I would ever consider using such a payment system as the one described; however that doesn't mean I have to get rid of using facebook altogether - just don't use what you don't want (and remember the thing about scrawling your information in public, as already mentioned).
I do NOT fear things like potential employers/future business partners/whatever seeing that I was out at a party drunk one day. Anyone who refuses to hire me for that, isn't someone I want to work for/do business with/etc.
Re:Right (Score:5, Insightful)
I understand the dislike, distrust and sometimes even hatred of things like facebook, but assuming that anyone with an active facebook account isn't aware of the issues seems to be a common mistake around here.
Thinking that you can play footsies with the Devil and never ever get burned is another very common mistake.
... and then participating in those companies' offerings anyway, well that's another all-too-common mistake. It always seems like your own individual contribution is a tiny drop in a big bucket, but then masses of people make this mistake and it really matters.
Or saying that you have a set of principles by which you recognize certain companies' behavior as evil, exploitative, maladaptive, undesirable, etc
I still choose to use it, because it's a good way to keep in touch with my many friends around the world; post pictures of my daughter growing up for anyone who cares to see that; organise events with friends in an easy to manage interface; and so on. I do block pretty much every game, "application" and so on and it's almost beyond the pale to imagine I would ever consider using such a payment system as the one described; however that doesn't mean I have to get rid of using facebook altogether - just don't use what you don't want (and remember the thing about scrawling your information in public, as already mentioned).
What "I don't want" is to ever make more successful a company that does business this way. What "I don't want" is to ever feel like no one ever had any way to keep in touch before the advent of Facebook. What I especially "don't want" is to promote the kind of culture surrounding Facebook. Joining them would be the same as giving my silent consent. In most relationships of abuse and exploitation, what you describe above is called being an enabler. You see, it's not a matter of features.
There is no convenience Facebook could ever offer me that would convince me to overlook their attitude towards their users. It is definitely not an attitude of respect and appreciation. It's more like the attitude a farmer has towards his livestock. That's simply unacceptable to me under any terms. I don't care to make a game of being the cow or chicken and seeing how much feed I can get out of the farmer while trying to avoid the privacy slaughterhouse. I probably could win such a game, like you are doing, but then I can definitely get my own feed. I'd rather simply have nothing to do with Facebook, have never once had an account, never visited the site, block their "Like buttons" etc, and I have never once regretted that decision.
Imagine if every user who felt the way you do decided not to use Facebook. It would create demand for a more reasonable social network. Right now starting one would fail because everyone is already on Facebook, and much of the utility of such a site is the number of people you can reach with it. Even a giant like Google is having grave difficulty getting an alternative off the ground, and most startups wouldn't have Google's deep pockets and name recognition.
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FFS. "Privacy slaughterhouse", seriously? What exactly are you worried about here? I hope you also don't use banks or credit cards. Also you should never ever use an image sharing site, or post on a public messageboard like Slashdot, because you might be lulled into telling uploading pictures of that time you had sex with a goat on camera, without realising how badly that might come across.
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Slashdot doesn't demand you use your real name.
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I have a friend on Facebook called Pin Gu. His profile picture is Pingu. I have another friend who is a guitar called Matilda Hohner..
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That's because they not only demand it, but also enforce the rule in an inconsistent and unpredictable way, which is even worse since a strict enforcement might get people to pressure them to change the rule.
But it definitively does happen, you just need a friendly anonymous coward to report you: http://www.thevine.com.au/life/tech/odd-names-banned-on-facebook/ [thevine.com.au], http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/05/selena-gomez-banned-facebook/ [tmz.com]
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And Facebook doesn't either. Not really. There is a guy posting as God on FB. According to reddit, he was banned for 3 days for posting an illustration of female reproductive organs and notes about what Sen. candidate Akin calls them. So obviously they are aware of the account, but haven't forced him to quit entirely.
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Demand is not the same as enforce. But yes, they do, just in an inconsistent way. That "God" just needs to piss some people off enough for them to mass report him.
Huzza! (Score:5, Funny)
I confidently predict that a blissful union of the non-sleaziness of mobile billing, the upstanding nature of Facebook, and the excellent security of consumer client devices will lead to excellent customer satisfaction and only the most minimal of fraud and billing disputes.
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No, but I think he might be a wizard.
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No, but I think he might be a wizard.
Of course, he attended Hogwarts.
The next product will be FacePal.
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Or a lawyer wizard! O.O
Yeah right (Score:2)
And everybody is going to embrace "Facebook as a porn payment", because there's no way FB will ever mine the data they gathered through your sales for marketing and advertising purpose~ They've always respected users privacy~ </sarcasm>
Seriously? I think you're right. Idiots will flock to it to buy lots of stupid stuff where privacy and anonymity would have been preferred.
FB's marketing department will mine this data like hell.
Cue in embarrassing target advertising and suggestions.
(Ob Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com] ref
Trust of the users first? (Score:1)
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They should gain the trust of their users first if they really want to see things like this pick up steam IMO
Why bother? How much do the users pay them?
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Sadly, this isn't true. Do you see a drop in amount of facebook users with all the privacy issues they constantly have? Nope. Average Joe doesn't care about "trust" or "security", because he doesn't even know what those things are.
That's why they click yes on "Run free-chicks.exe as root?".
Click-jacking (Score:2)
Average Joe doesn't care about "trust" or "security", because he doesn't even know what those things are.
Until the very last moment when it comes back into his face. But then it's already to late.
That's why they click yes on "Run free-chicks.exe as admin?".
(NB: FTFY)
Yup. Just have a look at how much click jacking has become rampant lately.
And the joe-six-pack reaction when he notice that the pseudo-'video player' has auto-liked itself and auto-plublished itself on the wall, is just "LOL". Doesn't even bother do delete the post, and unfriend/unlike the page or block the app.
Why I don't let facebook have my number (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet another reason why I don't trust Facebook, Google, or any other of these sorts of company with my mobile number.
If I want to buy something I'll take out my credit card tap in all the numbers and buy it. At least that way I *know* that I'm buying something, and I'm not nastily surprised when my mobile bill is huge after hitting the wrong button when my touchscreen plays up.
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Same here even had to remove a pretty popular youtube account/channel after they wanted my mobile number. No thanks...
To err is human, and that's the problem... (Score:2)
Re:To err is human, and that's the problem... (Score:5, Funny)
I wanna pay for shit I buy through FB about as much as I want hemmeroid surgery without anesthesia on Pay-Per-View. So why am I thinking of mebbe building my own social media site that harvests demographic data only instead of doing a massive cavity search like Google/FB/etc? Cause mebbe its time has come.
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Re:Taco Bell (Score:2)
Pick ANY other fast food joint! Taco Bell is tasty!
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But.... Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the Franchise Wars. Now all restaurants are Taco Bell.
Astrological Forcast? (Score:1)
If you want one, chances are you aren't very good at dealing with finances or life in general.
The death of Facebook? (Score:1)
I give it 3 months. Between click fraud, deceptive ads that trick you into accidentally buying stuff and hackers, people will soon be scared to even log into their facebook accounts.
Investors? How about users? (Score:5, Insightful)
Only if they can gain the trust of a fair amount of users.
I use Facebook, but under a fake name with as little personal information as I can give them. There's no way I'd trust Facebook with financial information.
I've no doubt that at least some users will think this is grand, but there's no way I'd ever use this. Their level of trust from me is arms length and suspicious.
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Users? Fuck users!
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I believe that they have ably demonstrated that they do not need the trust of their users.
I would n't worry.. (Score:2)
This is just part of FB' continous mutations. Remember what FB was like before twitter became popular? Then they "twitterised" it, added news feeds, timeline and other nonsense. However now post IPO the pressure is on and people are realising that FBs model for making money does n't make any sense, so you get crazyness like buying instagram, constant talk about making money from mobile and now payments.
In the end FB will probably get into a feedback loop where they have to become more and more obnoixious
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On your wall..... (Score:4, Funny)
What for ? (Score:2)
I'm genuinely interested in what your sister needs a fleshlight for? From an anatomic point of view...
Or to you imply that the FB "me too"-ers are going to keep their habit of following any trend and/or installing/buying the same apps as everyone else, even if doesn't make any anatomical sense.
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I'm genuinely interested in what your sister needs a fleshlight for? From an anatomic point of view...
Fleshlight is an equal opportunity toy-store [fleshlight...ational.eu]
Privacy (Score:3)
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If a company needs to know what to put on the shelves, surely it can just track what actually sells. They know the quantity purchased from any given store, why on earth would they care who's buying it?
Bonus cards are to make you think twice before shopping elsewhere - go past the CrappyMart because you have a card for ShittyMart down the road. That's all.
Re:Privacy (Score:4, Interesting)
Ah, good 'ol loyalty cards. I prefer disloyalty cards [thestar.com]. ;)
Anyway, it's a mix. Yes, they want to motivate you to keep coming back. But these stores also like to know crazy amounts of information about you. Aka, not just what's disappearing in a particular store, but what's being consumed by what demographics, what's bought at the same time, etc, to help determine product positioning, marketing campaigns, and so forth. Here's a crazy article on the lengths some companies go [nytimes.com]. The first paragraph, as a teaser:
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Or go to SnootyMart like me. :-) It's not the cheapest, but they have a deli, bakery and butcher in store that are the best for miles around, and the loyalty card along with cash register generated coupons generally brings the prices in line with other, scruffier stores.
They redid the store last year to replace most of the harsh lighting with moodier indirect stuff, and at Christmas they bring in a grand piano and someone to play holiday tune. Last year's dude took requests. He knew the freaking Claymation
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No, they're also for targeted advertising, by doing statistical analysis of the purchases:
About a year after Pole created his pregnancy-prediction model, a man walked into a Target outside Minneapolis and demanded to see the manager. He was clutching coupons that had been sent to his daughter, and he was angry, according to an employee who participated in the conversation.
âoeMy daughter got this in the mail!â he said. âoeSheâ(TM)s still in high school, and youâ(TM)re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?â
The manager didnâ(TM)t have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the manâ(TM)s daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.
On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. âoeI had a talk with my daughter,â he said. âoeIt turns out thereâ(TM)s been some activities in my house I havenâ(TM)t been completely aware of. Sheâ(TM)s due in August. I owe you an apology.â
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?pagewanted=all [nytimes.com]
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Why ask for a credit card number when you can rest assured that most customers who actually have and use one will pay with it and present their 'loyalty card' in the same transaction within the fairly near future?
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I always know it's over for something I like when it starts to get stocked on lower and lower shelves. :-(
Or that's you what you think (Score:2)
Pure marketting demographics research, for which they were willing to 'pay' me in discounts on food and gas purchases at the supermarket-owned gas station at the end of their parking lot. That's what those bonus cards are for
That's what you think. But the amount of data and how they can mine it is scary.
See the embarrassing anecdote [forbes.com] about Target, and the 'statistically pregnant daughter' as an example. (And remember: all this was done with completely legally acquired data. No snooping involved. Just the power of statistics).
And what did Target learn from this story? That they should stop mining data in such a way that provide embarrassing insight in the private life of individuals? No.
They learned that next time they have to h
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I have one.
The experience has been uneventful other than the occasional 2 for 1 on the french bread rolls from their awesome bakery. Sweet Feathery Jesus, they make sourdough French bread that can cause spontaneous orgasms like in the Matrix. Wish I had some right now. ...
WTF was the topic again?
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This is what they mean by "frictionless" (Score:5, Insightful)
The goal here is to make payment so easy that you don't have the time to reconsider the purchase decision while, for instance, you're pulling out your wallet to get out your credit card. These are people that firmly believe that the way to make the world a better place is to make it easier for them to buy stuff whether or not it is of any use to them whatsoever. I know, because I've attended one of the major conferences in the industry and met some of these folks and listened to their talks about this sort of technology.
And of course, what makes it easy for a legitimate business to take your money also makes it easy for a not-so-legitimate business or a thief to take your money.
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same concept as the supermarket check out line magazines and other trinkets. that stuff is high margin.
newegg and amazon do the same thing with suggested add ons. geeks fall for it as well just different products
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same concept as the supermarket check out line magazines and other trinkets. that stuff is high margin.
newegg and amazon do the same thing with suggested add ons. geeks fall for it as well just different products
I don't think these are all that similar, because you still see these add ons in the cart and are likely to delete them during check out if they are frivolous.
"Frictionless" is more along the lines of one-click buying.
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Agreed. I had such a "frictionless" experience recently with Groupon.
I wanted two coupons of something, select the number, click , expect to first see a total that they're going to charge me, but no, directly charged. Irritating. I really should try and wipe my credit card number from my acount with them. They really should give me the actual amount they're going to charge and let me agree on that. Even after processing the purchase they didn't show me iirc.
Also I wonder if they unsubscribed me from their n
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My favorite permutation of this is the 3rd party billing "feature", turned on by default by your friendly neighborhood cellular service conglomerate.
3rd party billing allows for businesses to add charges to your phone bill, and the carrier makes no effort to verify whether you actually agreed to anything. That means a crook can add arbitrary monthly charges to your bill simply by knowing your phone number and claiming you opted in. Best of all, the carrier won't reverse the charges even if you can prove y
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The goal here is to make payment so easy that you don't have the time to reconsider the purchase decision while, for instance, you're pulling out your wallet to get out your credit card.
Sure. They are encouraging impulsiveness and giving impulsive (undisciplined) people what they want.
These are people that firmly believe that the way to make the world a better place is to make it easier for them to buy stuff whether or not it is of any use to them whatsoever.
Then their relationship to the world is that of a parasite. They are feeding off a character weakness. Of course they think that's good. Ticks and fleas think sucking your blood is good, too.
It's just that the mainstream is not terribly thoughtful or insightful. So when it's something physical and obvious, like a tick sucking blood, they recoil and see that it's a nasty parasite. When it's something
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To be among that many marketdroids... Did it resemble a robotics class?
No, it resembled a remedial course in comparative literature: Anyone with half a brain could tell that most of what was being said was nonsense, but most of the attendees were eating it up.
what currencies will they support? (Score:2, Funny)
bitcoin?
*ducks*
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*ducks*
You know what? Given the current economy, I might be willing to accept ducks as currency.
Seriosuly... (Score:5, Insightful)
The last thing we need is for Facebook to trick people into making it powerful in a whole new way.
And in unreleated news... (Score:1)
IMHO, that is just one evil, evil, empire. I hate to sound like a conspirator, but I wouldn't put it past a greater power, rather than Zergabuger, being responsible for knowing the intimate details of your life.
frictionless my ass (Score:2)
The only friction they are removing is by greasing the path from my pocket to their pocket.
And I'd rather there BE friction there, since it's my pocketbook on the line.
Worth 1000 captchas. (Score:1)
From the threads on 4chan, it's apparent lots of people are paying through Facebook already.
Good Luck Bango! (Score:3)
Because I have had a "3rd party billing" block on my AT&T account for years. and I suggest everyone do the same. it keeps scumbag companies like bango from being able to charge your Mobile phone number for anything.
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I have had a "3rd party billing" block on my AT&T account for years.
Is this for your cell phone, a "landline", or both?
How does one go about this and confirm that the block is in place. Is this legally required of phone companies (cell, landline, VOIP, cable phone providers)?
3rd party billing is clearly something that should be required by law to be explicitly opt-in.
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Land Line? I haven't had one of those for over 6 years.
to confirm the block? call up customer service and ask, "are you still blocking 3rd party billing?"
sure i can see this (Score:2)
as long as this means that i can get PAID this way. Heck i have a prepaid Amex i could link to this.
Huh? (Score:2)
Paying Through Facebook May Become a Reality
should read
Paying Through Facebook May Become Possible
FTFY... it will never be my reality.
Eh? (Score:2)
I have perfectly good credit card that gives me perfectly good rewards to the point that I run my whole life through it and get nearly a thousand dollars a year in free stuff. It's also with a bank that is S.H.I.E.L.D.-like when it comes to detecting and snuffing out unauthorized shit. So why do I want some other middle man to get in the way again?
'Bango' 'Frictionless' (Score:2)
Sounds like the potential for a good fucking, all right, but not necessarily the kind you want.
Payment using Facebook? I don't think so. Why not be done with it and make barcode tattoos on foreheads mandatory?
Frictionless (Score:1)
So silky smooth, you don't even notice you're being financially raped.
Regarding Bango ... (Score:1)
Bango (AIM: BGO), announced on 21 May 2012 that Peter Saxton, Bango’s CFO, had notified the Board of Bango of his wish to retire, on a schedule to be agreed with the Board that will ensure an orderly hand-over to a new CFO. This process is ongoing and is expected to be completed by November 2012.
(later)
Peter Saxton, Chief Financial Officer at mobile web payments firm Bango, has sold 386,701 shares on 23 August 2012 at a price of 179.50p per share.
Friction is Your Friend, No Mobile Clicks (Score:2)
"Frictionless" payment is how Bango puts it.
Can we all agree that whenever a corporation uses the term "frictionless payment," we simply replace it with "greasing the consumer's wallet." People tend to think of friction as a negative term, but do you really find that you're having trouble getting your card or the linen out of your wallet because there's simply too much friction? If someone offered a "frictionless wallet" from which money slips out effortlessly, would you buy it? Some things, like brakes and wallets, are useless without friction.
I
Not a good thing (Score:1)
Fortunately, the deal did not go through (Score:2)
Fortunately, the deal did not go through. Apparently, the lawyer who was supposed to oversee it scratched his nose at a charity auction and inadvertantly paied $10,450,000 for a screwdriver with some old chewing gum on the handle. Apparently it was a celebrity item. The lawyer, though a man of considerable means, could not come up with the cash and was detained for some time until he could convince them there was no intent of fraud. He is, however, permanently banned from the auction venue and as I said