Are you aware of how much data collection agencies have on you? It makes Google look like a bunch of rank amateurs.

Another useful term if you're interested in the truly scary data gatherers is "data broker", though good luck finding anything concrete about this shady industry.

Those data collection agencies that work within the boundaries set by the law have absolutely nothing on me.

If you live in the US and don't use cash for every purchase, I think you'd be surprised how much leeway companies have here. Many logical and straightforward protections won't ever be put into law until after some new privacy crisis comes up. This is one reason why it was so infuriating when google and apple were called in front of congress but AT&T and other cell companies were nowhere to be seen...I assume Congress is OK with that data collection (if they didn't collect location data, who could they subpoena?) but it would have been nice to at least get some of that breathless blog and news coverage aimed at the telecoms.

The hard part is disambiguating customers (which is why loyalty/discount cards are so great for them), but it is really horrifying the amount of credit card history, demographic data, grocery store purchases, prescription information (seriously) etc etc that companies can collect, cross reference, and sell while staying within the law.

I am surprised that more comments do not share this view. It is a cool technology but i worry that there are too many ulterior motives behind wanting to control your wallet on your phone. I also am not sure if the convenience factor is high enough encourage use. I can already tap my credit card against the gas pump or even at a Starbucks but I think I only done it once. I would not use it to get coupons or targeted ads pushed to my phone. Expense tracking is the only use case that interests me but with so little coverage it would not support that yet. Think what will happen is you will have a Visa app, MC app and an Amex app and then have other apps that will interact with them securely and letting you control your privacy.

This is pretty FUDdy. Think about what you are saying. That somehow, just because Google built the OS level software to support this, that they will necessarily put hooks into it to collect the record of transactions.

You may want to read googles' terms of service for their wallet system:

http://www.google.com/wallet/privacy.html

I quote: "Transaction information - When you use Google Wallet to conduct a transaction, information regarding the transaction may be stored in the Google Wallet Application. We may collect information about these transactions from the Google Wallet Application. We also collect transaction data from your use of the Google Wallet Service. For example, if you use the Google Wallet Application to make a purchase at a merchant or download a merchant coupon, we may obtain information regarding that transaction from the Wallet Application, from the merchant and/or a partner, as applicable. The information may include the date and time of the purchase, the store location, the amount of the purchase, and the offer associated with the transaction. "

Yeah that doesn't read so well. I stand corrected.

Google's entire business is collecting data. What would make you think they're not collecting this info?

I have no reason to believe that they are. It seems to me that the burden of proof is on those who are making the accusation that Google will be collecting this data. I am suggesting that we have no idea, and in fact I think it would be pretty shocking if Google were actually to collect that data. Hence my accusation of FUD. But if you have some sort of evidence please share it.

Here's a thought experiment: my Android phone has a camera in it. Do you also believe that Google is collecting every picture I take without my permission?

google does not collect every picture you take with your android card because it does not pass through their hands.

Technically neither does the transaction data. I mean, there's no technical requirement that transaction data needs to be stored on a central Google server.

They could have made some arbitrary statement like "by using the camera app you give us access to all of the pictures you ever take, so that we can back them up for you."

Maybe I'm misunderstanding google wallet, but isn't this exactly the kind of data that you would expect for it to collect? I'm not too shocked when my credit card statement has a list of merchants, addresses and times of purchases, nor when amazon (and newegg, and paypal, and...) has a list of items and dates purchased, which in turn influence the items they recommend to me for future purposes.

On the other hand, if you don't feel comfortable with google being the clearinghouse for the information...super? Use something else (and spur competition!). The OP's statement seems as monumental as which brand of credit card company he uses (and somewhat willfully blind in light of the information they can and do collect...much more than appears on our credit card statements).

Why? Is that really much worse than the huge amount of data they most likely already have about you? Unless Google gets hacked (and stores your financial info in an insecure format), or decides to steal your money, I don't see the risk being any greater than having your primary personal or business email account with Google.

Then I hope you only use cash.