The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
Blockchain for copyright enforcement
Blockchain, the distributed ledger technology originally developed for bitcoin payments, could be adapted to use for digital rights management, or DRM, the technology that protects digital media from file-sharing.
Sony wants to adapt blockchain to work with its DRM tools to track the distribution of copyrighted materials,
DRM has a storied past, with one of Sony's past implementations considered to be so heavy-handed that it was
Tweet or phish?
Many Twitter users began receiving bizarre notifications Tuesday that resembled garbled strings of letters and numbers, and some mistook the notifications for a phishing scheme,
The incident could be tied to Twitter's latest iOS update, and the company was quick to fix it.
The problem seemed to also affect Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, who posted a screenshot that seemed to be his own iPhone notifications displaying the same nonsensical notifications.
Facebook watches you watching ads
Facebook Portal, the social network's camera-equipped smart speaker designed to rival Amazon Echo and Google Home, could use the data it collects to target advertising,
The device itself doesn't display ads, but since it's tied into the Messenger app for video calls, it can deliver the same data Messenger normally collects for those communications, Facebook explained.
The article notes this contradicts Facebook's original assertion that the device didn't collect data for advertising. Facebook now says that while the data can be used for advertising on other platforms, it doesn't have plans to do so.
Australian banks invest in 'smart receipts'
NAB Ventures and Westpac's venture capital arm Reinventure have invested $2 million in seed funding to Slyp, an interactive recept startup.
Slyp captured itemized payment data from point of sale software and sends a receipt that includes interactive content, such as marketing offers or information on related products that can be purchased via a mobile app,
NAB also plans to integrate Slyp into its own banking services in early 2019.
From the Web
TechCrunch | Tue October 16, 2018 - Many doubted The Civil Media Company‘s ambitious plan to sell $8 million worth of its cryptocurrency, called CVL. The skeptics, as it turns out, were right. Civil’s initial coin offering, meant to fund the company’s effort to create a new economy for journalism using the blockchain, failed to attract sufficient interest.
The Wall Street Journal | Tue October 16, 2018 - Apple Inc. apologized over the hacking of some Chinese accounts in phishing scams, almost a week after it emerged that stolen Apple IDs had been used to swipe customer funds. In its English statement Tuesday, Apple said it found “a small number of our users’ accounts” had been accessed through phishing scams.
The Economic Times | Wed October 17, 2018 - The Unique Identification Authority of India has written to a number of digital payments companies asking them to stop offering any Aadhaar-based service on their platform, in its first major directive following the recent Supreme Court ruling which prohibits private companies from using biometric-based authentication services.
More from PaymentsSource
Marks & Spencer is the first major U.K. retailer to launch a mobile scanning and payment app in its stores. Several U.K. supermarket chains have launched pilots of cashierless and checkout-free mobile shopping, but have yet to roll out services.
Capgemini's 2018 World Payments Report is out, and it has some alarming predictions. Are its findings a threat to traditional payment systems, or just the first sign of a transformation that will affect all economies?
In the wake of rising blockchain popularity, the medical tourism industry is bound to be among the top beneficiaries.
Neither the prepaid issuer nor its bank partner can say when cardholders — many living paycheck to paycheck — will receive their funds.
