When you’re out and about or doing your shopping online, Google Pay is a really handy method to pay for the items and services you purchase. The question is, how secure is it? Let’s investigate.
Using Google Pay can make some of the day-to-day activities of life a little bit less difficult.
It eliminates the need that you carry your wallet around with you while allowing you to take advantage of the convenience of contactless payment whenever you enter a store.
Despite this, the payment service provides a great deal more than just this. It gives you the ability to store reward cards, boarding passes, and other documents, which means that your pocket checks need just contain your phone and your keys from now on.
However, as the state of technology continues to advance, we are constantly discovering that we are getting more concerned with the security of our information, particularly with regard to the data of our financial transactions.
How safe is it to pay using Google Pay? Can we put all of our faith in the application to take care of our data? Or should we start acting with a greater degree of caution?
What Is Google Pay?
Google Pay, as you could well have figured out by now, is a payment system developed by Google which can be used to pay for goods and services.
By linking payment cards, whether debit or credit, users can pay for things in-store, online or via particular applications, saving time and effort over alternative payment methods.
Google Pay can also be used to store all that clutter you used to keep in your wallet, too, like store reward cards and covid vaccination cards, as well as those things you can’t forget such as flight boarding passes.
When shopping online, users may complete transactions using Google Pay on websites that accept the service by logging into their Google account in the Chrome browser.
Is Google Pay Safe?
Security is the one issue that worries consumers the most about digital wallets. It sounds unsafe to put all of your credit card and debit card information into your smartphone and have it kept on a server someplace.
Perhaps most significantly, Google Pay prevents the seller from seeing your credit card information when you make a purchase.
Every transaction generates a virtual account number, which is what is transferred via the merchant’s payment system.
Google takes many precautions to safeguard your information, including strong encryption to keep your data on its secure servers. All of Google’s operations are built on the foundations of cloud computing and data security, so Google should be able to protect your data.
To use Google Pay, you must also configure security on your smartphone. Google Pay won’t function unless your phone is configured to lock automatically.
Your account numbers are erased from Google Pay if the lock is disabled. Making sure your phone is secured prevents someone from accessing it and taking your numbers.
Does Google Pay Save Your Bank Details?
Because there is always a risk of security being compromised at a retailer, it is important to take advantage of any application that helps you keep your payment information private.
When compared to the use of a debit or credit card, Google Pay may provide a higher level of protection. Tokens, which are more often known as “virtual card numbers,” are what are used in the payment mechanism of the app to make payments.
During the transaction, the true number on your card will remain hidden from view. This will protect you against dishonest firms as well as security problems.
Does Google Pay Have A Contactless Limit?
There isn’t yet a limit on transaction values with Google Pay. The other two participants may, however, restrict higher-value transactions given that every GPay transaction is really a partnership between Google, your bank, and the store.
Similar to chip-and-PIN transactions, greater value transactions will need authentication from you. The purpose of this is to keep Google Pay secure by preventing unauthorised access to your phone. Just use your fingerprint, pattern, or password to unlock the smartphone.
The amount of GPay transactions that may be made is not restricted by Google, and neither are the daily transaction restrictions. This is another matter, however, as your bank could set its own limitations.
How To Set Up Google Pay
While the process of setting up Google Pay is simple, it is not the quickest. The good news is that you’ll save a tonne of time when making purchases moving ahead if you take the effort to set it up correctly now.
The Google Pay app has to be downloaded first. The procedure is the same for both Android and iOS devices.
- Tap the “Get Started” button after installing and launching the Google Pay app.
- Select “Connect” from the menu. You will be prompted with a box asking for permission to provide Google Pay access to your device’s location.
- Tap the “Turn On” button at the bottom of the screen to enable location permissions.
- Click the “Add Payment Method” button after selecting the Payment tab.
- Hold your card in the camera box that appears after selecting “Add a New Card”. Verify the card’s expiry date and CVC number once the camera has taken a picture of it.
- Click the “Save” button, then click the “Accept & Continue” button that follows it.
- Click the bottom-positioned blue “Got It” button.
- You can now choose between your mobile number and email address for the final verification. Select what you want, then touch “Continue”.
- Enter the code received from Google and press “submit”.
UPDATE: Apple now lets you end-to-end encrypt iCloud data with Advanced Data Protection.
