Earlier this week, Starbucks customers reported that hundreds of dollars were stolen from their credit cards. The Starbucks mobile app lets customers pay at checkout with their phone. The app can also reload Starbucks gift cards by automatically drawing funds from bank account, credit card or Pay Pal.
The Starbucks mobile app, the most used mobile-payment app in the U.S., has been storing usernames, email addresses and passwords in clear text, Starbucks executives confirmed late on Tuesday (Jan. 14). The credentials were stored in such a way that anyone with access to the phone can see the passwords and usernames by connecting the phone to a PC. No jailbreaking of the phone is necessary. And that clear text also displays an extensive list of geolocation tracking points (latitude, longitude), a treasure trove of security and privacy gems for anyone who steals the phone.
Mobile payments processor Square will launch its payments service at 7,000 Starbucks coffeehouses tomorrow.
In addition to processing credit and debit card transactions, Square's agreement with Starbucks allows customers to make purchases at the coffee shops with Square Wallet-- Square's payer app. The launch comes three months after the two companies announced an extensive partnership in August, in which the coffee giant also announced a $25 million investment in the payment startup.
If you installed iOS 6 last week, you probably expected to be able to use your Starbucks rewards card in Passbook. For some unknown reason, Starbucks has not yet updated its iOS app with Passbook integration, but the company has confirmed that the update is coming “at the end of this month.”
Jonathan Stark recently released his Starbucks card to the public as a social experiment. It was quickly picked up by CNN, Time, and many others.
