Signifyd has launched tools to help online sellers choose whether to accept or deny a sale by matching online identities to offline people. Factors like social graphs, location, and history can help confirm the legitimacy of suspicious transactions.

With 2 million users, a deal with Starbucks, and $6 billion worth of transactions, Square is turning smartphones into checkouts, digitising loyalty schemes and reshaping how consumers spend – without using NFC technology.

Easy-to-use personal security measures are a welcome antidote to the privacy fears that plague a post-PRISM scandal world. But are encrypted text messages a necessity, or just a fan to the flames of a paranoia epidemic?

As the smartphone becomes an increasingly useful way to make purchases online, research shows that mobile shopping drives more impulse buys than any other platform. The Europe-wide study found that of 13.5 million mobile shoppers, 42% regularly buy ‘on impulse’ via smartphone.