How safe is Apple Pay?

Digital money will never be quite as secure as the paper version

Apple Pay
(Image credit: (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images))

Apple Pay, the system that launched with Apple's recently released iPhones, represents a kind of watershed moment in money technology. For the first time ever, all of the factors that are needed to make digital payments a feasible, everyday possibility are combined into one device. The iPhone 6 has near-field communication (NFC) capabilities that send wireless data securely over short ranges, a fingerprint sensor that makes it easy for the device to confirm the user's identity, and a widely adopted hardware platform with software to match.

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