Technology

Despite years of debate, lawmakers are still grappling with key questions over how to set enhanced data security and notification standards to prevent cyber attacks, including whether they should preempt state laws.

Overall, merchants are doing a reliable job of fighting back the onslaught of e-commerce fraud, but there are some places where the defenses have dramatically broken down.

Walgreens' vision for creating a patient-centered pharmacy combines mobile health care, digital health technologies and its Balance Rewards prepaid and loyalty system.

While Apple's taking an early incremental approach to Las Vegas, terminal manufacturer Ingenico is very bullish on the technology picking up steam with the gaming industry and its patrons.

Walmart is partnering with Alipay, the payments affiliate of Alibaba Group to accept mobile payments in 25 stores in Shenzen with the goal of having it available in all 410 Walmart stores in China by the end of the year.

More than 400,000 USAA customers, five of which are over 90 years old, have opted to use biometric traits to authenticate themselves within the bank's mobile app.

Canadian telecommunications companies Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) and SaskTel now offer their customers mobile payments through TD Bank.

"Big data" has been all the rage in the payments industry in recent years. While the hype seems to have subsided a bit, that might be because the most dedicated data-using merchants have put their heads down to focus on sifting through the data to investigate fraud.

Beacons—those little Bluetooth mechanisms stores use to beam ads to shoppers' phones—may someday play a critical role in payments. But the technology is still years away from being a practical alternative to cards and NFC-based mobile wallets.

Rumors of an alliance between China's e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba and Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant Apple are heating up again — and are coming from a very high-placed source.