{"id":42637,"date":"2024-03-25T16:28:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T20:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=42637"},"modified":"2024-03-28T14:46:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T18:46:50","slug":"digital-wallets-and-the-only-apple-pay-does-this-mythology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/25\/digital-wallets-and-the-only-apple-pay-does-this-mythology\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Wallets and the “Only Apple Pay Does This” Mythology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Birchler<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The FPAN is the “funding primary account number” and it’s the 15-18 digit number printed on your physical card. The DPAN is your “device primary account number”.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

It’s notable that it’s called a DPAN and not “the Apple Pay number” – it’s a generic term, and that’s because this is a standard feature of digital wallets everywhere, not just Apple Pay. Google Pay and Samsung Pay are the biggest other digital wallets in the U.S. and they both do exactly the same thing. While it’s not technically using a DPAN since the payment runs through different companies, Amazon Pay and Shop Pay buttons also obscure the actual FPAN (full card number) from merchants.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The DPAN is always the same for subsequent transactions at the same merchant. So yes, while this can hinder data brokers from easily buying transaction data from a bunch of different merchants and figuring out shopping trends across those merchants,<\/strike> it does nothing to stop a single<\/strike> merchant from seeing your transaction history with just the DPAN provided by Apple Pay.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\nThere’s also an idea I see sometimes […] that Apple Pay obscures your personal information. That’s simply not true.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n