Near Field Communication. A convenient life comes with a price.
Jeremy Johnson
University of Maryland University College

Near Field Communication. A convenient life comes with a price.

Technology has been on a tremendous up rise in the past years, with the increasing technology come increasing ethical issues. Nothing in this world is perfect, so down sides to technology is expected. For example, personally I never buy the first edition of any new product, like a gaming system or a phone usually because the kinks aren’t ironed out at the time of release. A popular technology that is being put in new electronic devices to make life easier is Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a short range wireless communication technology that enables devices designed to establish radio communications with each other by being touched together or brought within a short distance. The NFC standard regulates a radio technology that allows two devices to communicate when they are in close proximity, usually no more than a few centimeters, allowing for more secure exchange of information. NFC came out Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), is the technology used by shipping companies and in superstores to keep track of goods, it uses electromagnetic induction in order to transmit information (Egan 2013). NFC is similar technology, but made better equip for consumer smartphones and other devices. NFC can work in three different modes NFC target, NFC initiator, and NFC peer to peer. An NFC initiator actively generates an Radio Frequency (RF) field that can power a passive NFC target (an unpowered chip) commonly referred to as a 'tag’, which allows NFC targets to be integrated with retail advertising, price stickers, key fobs, or other applications, none requiring external power (Nosowitz, 2011). NFC technology will make it easy to track shopping and purchase habits of customers along with location tracking. This is perfect for marketers; they would now be able to make use of hyper targeting marketing techniques outside of online context where it currently resides. This will allow marketers to personally tailor advertising campaigns that can be delivered on location and at the point of sale to increase impulse buys. This brings ethical concerns for many reasons. First I feel that the biggest ethical concern will be targeted advertisements, you won’t have to be on the surfing the web at this point to see offers in different places. As NFC technology becomes more common the downside for consumers increases. Retailers could force customers into adopting and using this technology by offering exclusive promotions for NFC purchases or charges for using the traditional form of payment. For example, I have around six financial accounts that forced me to take e-statement over paper statements by attaching a fee to paper statement. Of course I am going to choose the option that requires me to keep my money in my pocket. I understand that the future will be paperless, but in this case I don’t really lose anything. This technology could punish consumers who chose to keep their privacy and do not want to reveal every aspect of their lives to companies who are trying to get as much money from them as possible. This advertisement will cause discrimination of pricing based on two equally valid methods of payment. Consumers who wish to make private and safe payments with cash run the risk of having their equal dollar devalued for not wanting to change over to the technology that is being adopted by the rest of the generation.
Then we have the security concerns of NFC. Before NFC technology can ultimately take over as the standard of payment, awareness must be raised about security issues with mobile phones. Security of NFC enabled phones could be better or no worse than using a card for payment. Smart phones are handheld computers with strong cryptography authentication protocol can be built into their systems but it is up to device manufacturers and service providers to ensure these protections are in place for NFC transactions. The fact that you have to be within a few centimeters to make a payment provides additional protection against unwanted communication, the standard does not ensure secure communications and various types of attacks are already known in literature. Another security issue is malware being passed around. Malware can put on a device causing every device that the initial phone comes in to communications with to be infected. Anti-virus software and operating system architecture that controls flow of information between applications will be important safeguards to mitigate such attacks. Despite this real concern, a recent study revealed that 71% of smart phone users have never considered installing anti-virus software on their phones (Geiger, 2011).
There are five known threats to NFC technology. Eavesdropping, data corruption, data modification, data insertion and man in the middle attack. Eavesdropping is when two devices communicate and an attacker use an antenna to receive the communications between the two. Data corruption is simply used when the attacker wants to disturb the communications causing the information that is being sent not readable by the receiver. In data modification the attacker wants the receiving device to actually receive some valid, but manipulated data. Data insertion is when the attacker inserts messages into the data exchange between two devices. Last is the man in the middle attack where the two parties think that they are communication with only one another but is unknowingly sending and receiving messages through a third party.
NFC will definitely be a part of our near future, especially when it comes to benefits like shorter waiting times. With a highly useful technology like this this, security steps must be taken before mass use adopted. I believe that security will be the deciding factor on whether the public use it or not. The population must first feel that their information and privacy will be safe. An NFC chip at this moment does not hold the security factors that’s needed to keep consumers and businesses safe.
References

Egan, M. (2013, October 9). “What is NFC? How does NFC work? For what might you use NFC? - a quick guide to NFC.” PCAdvisor Retrieved, from http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/mobile-phone/3472879/what-is-nfc-how-nfc-works-what-it-does/

Geiger, Harley. NFC Phones Raise Opportunities, Privacy and Security Issues. Center for Democracy & Technology, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 24 May 2011. < http://www.cdt.org/blogs/harley-geiger/nfc-phones-raise-opportunities-privacy-and-security-issues >.

Nosowitz, Dan (1 March 2011). "Everything You Need to Know About Near Field Communication" Popular Science Retrieved, from http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2011-02/near-field-communication-helping-your-smartphone-replace-your-wallet-2010
NFC. (n.d.). “Security Concerns with NFC Technology”. Retrieved from http://www.nearfieldcommunication.org/nfc-security.html
Brecht, D. (2015, January 26). “NFC Technology for Payments: Any Concerns?” InfoSec Institute. Retrieved from http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/nfc-technology-payments-concerns/