∞ EasyPay not EasySteal

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Andrew Richardson on how he thinks Apple’s new EasyPay feature may work:

Combine the authorized-by-EasyPay transaction record, the customer’s location within the store as reported by the app, and an RFID tag inside the product box. An automated system can determine which products may pass through the security portal without sounding an alarm and which cannot. The key is the customer’s phone.

Hand the paid-for product to your buddy and hear the alarm sound as he walks out the door without your iPhone in hand.

I have no idea how it works and how they stop people from stealing.


  • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

    There are so many holes in the guy’s theory. First of all, he says, “I don’t know what would happen if a customer declined letting the Apple Store app use location services.” Simple – the app doesn’t work as reported by others.

    He claims, “It’s not as accurate as GPS, but accurate and fast enough to locate a WiFi device within a local area.” Ever used “Find my iPhone”? While the phone can be located in a (very) general area, it’s not pinpoint enough to know whether you are physically in the store or just outside of it.

    He assumes that if you “Hand the paid-for product to your buddy (you would) hear the alarm sound as he walks out the door without your iPhone in hand.” Last Christmas, I went to the Apple Store with my roommate and bought her a new iPhone as a present. She walked out the door with the product. Is he saying that, if we did that today, an alarm would sound? And with the amount of traffic going in and out of a store, how do you know which of the half dozen people who just walked out was the “culprit”?

  • http://briiiiian.com Brian Lane Winfield Moore

    Two big problems here:

    1. I don’t think Apple has any sort of RFID alarm system in place.

    2. And even if they did, products don’t typically carry unique RFID tags. If I’m not mistaken, most store alarm systems have one tag for all products that get deactivated at the register. If they don’t get deactivated, they set off the alarm on the way out. That’s why you sometimes trigger alarms when things from different stores are on your person (they weren’t properly deactivated).

    I can’t imagine with current costs that any company would be able to afford to put unique RFID data on every individual product and somehow remotely wirelessly deactivate them within the store. Each barcode would have to be unique as well!

    My guess: they trust their customers. That’s it. They’d lose more money building this system than if people regularly stole their accessories.

    • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

      As Seth Dillingham (@sethdill) just said on Twitter: 
      “if he’d bought anything lately (as I did, last weekend), he’d have seen for himself that there’s no RFID.”

  • Anonymous

    Do Apple stores use the normal magnetic security sensors at the entrance of their stores? I don’t remember seeing them.

    I did brainstorm some ways Apple’s new EasyPay system might work.

    If Apple does use magnetic security tags, they could have a unique tag on each package. Each tag would also have a unique barcode on it. When a customer purchases a product, the store’s security system can now ignore that unique magnetic security strip when it leaves the store.

    I’m not sure the store’s use magnetic security tags though.

    Regardless if they use magnetic sensors or not, they could have a store employee (or security guy just monitoring the camera at the entrance) comparing what people are buying with EasyPay to what products are walking out the store.

    • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

      “They could have a store employee (or security guy just monitoring the
      camera at the entrance) comparing what people are buying with EasyPay to
      what products are walking out the store”

      Not workable. Apple is not now, nor have they ever, stopped each customer as they leave the store to check their bags. And monitoring cameras doesn’t solve the problem of people putting products in bags and walking out.

      And keep in mind, even before Apple instituted EasyPay, there was no security the kind of which you describe or other stores have.

      • Anonymous

        I’m not saying anyone would be stopping customers on their way out. But it would be simple for an employee in the store (or just monitoring the camera) to passively glance at people if they walk out with merchandise. This employee would not be standing by the doors, and it would not be immediately obvious what they were doing. If a customer walks out with a Airport Extreme the employee could glance at the list of products purchased in the last few minutes, and see if one was purchased.

        This would purely be a passive activity. No one would stop these customers, even if they do appear to be walking off with unpaid merchandise. If Apple is even watching it this carefully I’d guess they are just making note of how much $$ people are walking away with, so they can decide if EasyPay is causing more shop lifting. Even if it is causing more shoplifting, it could still be worth it.

        The more I think about this theory, the more I don’t see a regular “blue-shirt” employee doing this. If Apple is doing something like this, it would either be someone watching the camera feed, or someone in plain clothes that seems to just be hanging out in the store.

        You know what. Maybe my theory is crazy. The only point would be to see if EasyPay is increasing shop lifting or not. Apple can accomplish the same thing with a regular inventory check.

        • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

          “But it would be simple for an employee in the store (or just monitoring
          the camera) to passively glance at people if they walk out with
          merchandise.”

          Have you *been* in an Apple store at Christmas time? :) Not a chance scanning that crowd for the small items that qualify for EasyPay (things like headphones and the like) is “simple” or can be done “passively”.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CO36G2RP7H3Q43ZWVK4IQAQLAM Ronald

    Interesting thoughts … I wonder if there is something new in the iPhone 4 / 4S that enables easy pay’s security check. Apparently easy pay does not work on older phones, even though it is not the most CPU or memory intensive of applications.

    • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

      Even if there was, there is no way for Apple to *know* you’ve used EasyPay. You could simply fake using the app and walk out the store with a new set of headphones.

      • Luke

        Of course they know if you’ve used EasyPay. The app knows when you’re in the store and when you’ve completed the purchase. You don’t think this information is immediately relayed to the store? It is.

        My theory is that the app uses trilateration from in-store access points to locate the customer within the store. If the same method can locate a phone within a few feet using satellites hundreds of miles away, I’m sure it can work accurately with wifi within the store (or bluetooth or some type of custom gps frequency the iPhone’s antennae can access).

        That location could be fed to a camera system monitored by an employee. If that employee sees a customer leave with a product that hasn’t been purchased, they simply let the blue shirt at the door know.

        • jpmhughes

          If the person uses the EasyPay system then Apple employees would know it has been used and the rest of your scenario would fit.
          However, if the person does not use the EasyPay system how could the person be tracked?
          That is what Shawn was alluding to.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CO36G2RP7H3Q43ZWVK4IQAQLAM Ronald

    I would be very surprised if Apple does not have a security system in place.

    And as far as RFID tags go, passive tags can be bought in volume for as little as 7 cents, and they can be used for inventory as well as security checks. The passive tags are also very small.

    There is no way that Apple would rely on an honour system. While 99% of the people may be honest, if there was an easy way to shoplift from an Apple Store, people would be all over it.

    Apple is also not the first store to implement something like this. Self checkout schemes exist at Home Depot as well. While everything may not be tagged, I’m sure that anything of value is.

    • http://briiiiian.com Brian Lane Winfield Moore

      None of Apple’s products have RFID tags and there are no alarms at the door. You would know if you’ve bought an Apple product (or accessory). They keep their display computers attached to the tables with alarms (not RFID), but nothing else carries anything like that.
      You also wouldn’t know if they were losing a ton of items from theft—they don’t report it.

  • http://twitter.com/beverson Ben Everson

    I spent almost four years working at two different Apple Stores. I can confirm — Apple Stores have no Target-style security gates or alarms or magnetic or RFID apparatus at the entrance. (I’m pretty sure that was directly from Steve, at least that’s what I heard.) The only security alarms are the ones attached by cables to portable Macs, Mac minis, iPads, iPhones, iPods, etc.

    I don’t know any details about how this new app might work in terms of Back of House reporting, etc. I haven’t asked any of my friends who still work for Apple. I suspect, though, that everyone is over thinking this.

    If you’re gonna steal something, you try to be inconspicuous. You don’t pull out an iPhone, mime scanning the product you’re about to steal, and then walk out. Sure, some small percentage of people might do this and show that it’s possible. But that’s not how the vast majority of shoplifters operate. They want to avoid drawing attention to themselves at all costs.

    My guess is that Apple Retail will combat shoplifting the same ways it always has, customer EasyPay or not.

  • Anonymous

    Andrew is 100% wrong. THere are no tags of any kind in the product. Never have been, probably never will be. Steve HATED those gates and refused to let them be put in the stores. 

    Those that want to steal will steal. they likely won’t bother pretending to pay for it. They will just pocket it and walk. That fact of life is why Apple has undercover as well as uniform LP folks. 

    Despite what Andrew says, it is all about trust. 

  • Anonymous

    “Trust” must be a foreign word to you people.

    To me, this “Easy Pay” system is analogous to the whole iTunes original concept of providing an easy and convenient way for HONEST people to obtain and PAY for digital music.

    Dishonest people will continue to steal, thereby “corroding their character” as Jobs said.