[bobsy]

Question: Yesterday I saw you in Starbucks and heard you say "put it on John's tab". Today I see you are 2 behind me in the queue. What stops me from strolling up to the counter, big grin and saying... Put it on John's tab please?

Wouldn't the proximity of your phone mean they would take the payment from you even though you haven't authorized it?

[pazimzadeh]

I'm pretty sure that a picture of the customer appears on the cashier's iPad app/register.

[brk]

Ah!

So we're relying on the cashier to care deeply enough to do this validation.

Remember the phase when credit cards were being issued with a picture of the card holders face on the front? And all the stories about the card with a picture of a petite Indian female being used by a large white male to ring up purchases?

I like the concept of Square, and I'd like for this to work. But the cashier being a face-recognition gateway seems like a horrible idea.

[ben1040]

Yep, you can't enable the tab feature without first taking a photo of yourself with the app.

[nimrody]

In that case, the cashier can easily charge you without your consent. Of course, you get the confirmation mail and can cancel the transaction but this is inconvenient.

Making payments too easy makes it easier on the bad guys as well.

[stbtrax]

Yes, but the kinds of purchases this is used for is usually < $10. It's not really worth anyone's time to follow someone around to get a free coffee.

[mikeevans]

Also, what if there are more than a few people with that name there? John is a very common name.