Sharing your data

Mobile payments haven’t taken off so readily in other parts of the world as in China and the use of QR payments is noticeable absent. As Fraser, a 26-year-old travelling around South-East Asia says, ‘payment with a contactless card is much more convenient than having to get out the phone, launch an app and scan something. Apple pay and google wallet are a thing, but not as popular as predicted’. The popularity of Quick Response (QR) code payments in China has created a surge of on line payments, to become the world’s largest mobile payment market, involving 35 trillion yuan ($5.1 trillion) in transactions.

All these services require quantities of personal data to be shared and older generations are more cautious about their security and not always comfortable with providing information to strangers. Older people at least in the west are far more sceptical about what big businesses and governments might do with the information and less trusting of public access to their personal details. As Fraser remarked "I'm aware that they’re taking data on pretty much everything I do, but I don't care as much as I probably should."