Are You Buying Into The Twitter E-Commerce Offer?
“Twitter notes that users’ payment and shipping info is encrypted and “safely stored” after the first transaction. This means that after the first time you use the buy button, you won’t have to keep entering in your info. You can remove the info from your account if you choose.”
When I read sentences like this, I always smile, or more likely, grin.
I’m guessing these people don’t read the news; or maybe they think they know better and they can secure my data in a way that no hacker will ever figure out. So, put your payment information in the hands of Twitter – they’ve never been hacked before. Or have they?
Yes, I’m sarcastic; and rightly so because if there’s anything we should’ve learned by now regarding security, it’s the fact that no one really has a good answer to the issue and everyone is at risk of being exposed. Databases are being hacked left and right every day, what makes Twitter be so confident (cocky, even) that they can make such a bold and ludicrous statement? Please, Twitter, show us how you’re doing it; we’re dying to know.
Obviously there’s no way to halt the trend ~ youngsters are eager for convenience. They see a tweet by Demi Lovato about her new song, they’re loathe to close Twitter, open iTunes, buy the track and then go back to Twitter. To them, all those steps are such a hassle. They want to be able to do that from Twitter, no matter the security cost (which they likely don’t even understand). I mean, Twitter could link their Buy button to the seller’s URL and get paid per click. But no, they have to store your payment information, so they can control it; no matter that, in the process, your payment information is stored in yet another database, so it can be hacked from yet another storage area.
Do I have a solution? No, I do not.
Do I understand that if Twitter doesn’t start making some serious money, they’ll have issues? Sure I do. But I can tell you right now, they’re not going to see me purchasing from a tweet.
Thank you, but no thank you.