PRIVACY CONCERNS OVER THE iPAD AS A CASH REGISTER

This afternoon, I will be attending an event which focuses on the latest iPad solutions for retailers. I have seen several stores around Manhattan which use iPads as point of sale terminals instead of the old-fashioned cash registers, which makes sense as iPads are user-friendly and the apps are flexible in design. However, in a time where there is seemingly a major privacy leak every few months, the use of an iPad in point of sale transactions raises privacy concerns for the consumer and retailer, such as:

• Does the app/iPad store credit card information?
• Does the app/iPad store information about the consumer?
• If any information is stored, how secure is the information in the iPad?
• If any information is stored, how secure is the iPad itself? (i.e. is it removed from the store nightly or placed in a safe, etc.)
• If any information is stored, are there security measures so that all employees will not have access to the consumer's information?
• How is credit card data transferred to the retailers merchant account service?

These are some of the questions I seek to have answered at the event this afternoon, and the questions that your business should consider in choosing a point of sale app for an iPad. The answers to these questions will not only help your business choose an app, but they also should form the basis of your business' privacy policy, which, although dense, explains to the consumer how information is collected, stored and transferred. A well written privacy policy can help your business avoid liability on privacy issues. Given the new ways by which businesses are conducting its' point of sale transactions, privacy policies are no longer exclusive to the online world.