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M-commerce transaction validation to rely on GPS data

Thursday, September 23, 2010 - 16:32 by Mike Price

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Analysts predict that the future of making secure payments for goods using your mobile phone will rely upon authentication which is based on location information.

Researchers at Gartner have said that 90 per cent of m-commerce transactions will be confirmed because of data relating to the user's location, within the next three years.

Experts believe that because the mobile browsing experience has become so advanced in recent years and because technology is allowing mobile browsing to catch up with static desktop browsing, many online retailers, financial institutions and social networking sites are having to adapt quickly and create a mobile environment, in which safe shopping online is possible for all.

Gartner's William Clark explained that the ability to detect and eradicate fraud in a desktop environment was relatively common, but warned that for m-commerce, the tools have not been developed to completely secure connection and protect consumers from being ripped-off by cybercriminals.

Mr Clark said that retailers would have to wait for secure systems which enable safe shopping online via mobile phones to be created, before they can offer the same level of security to consumers, no matter where they are shopping.

The context of the mobile user's shopping will be taken into account by anti-fraud tools in the future, according to Gartner's Avivah Litan. By looking at various pieces of data relayed by the user's phone to the retailer, it will be possible to identify whether they are legitimately shopping for goods, or having their identity hijacked, the analyst said.

If the user is able to show that they are shopping in the town, region or country in which they live, the retailer will be better placed to authenticate transactions and detect fraud. This means criminals based internationally will have a tough time compromising a mobile commerce site, as they would have to fool the GPS system.