ARTICLES AND AWARDS


Smart Cards Need a Higher IQ

Monday, August 20, 2001

By Geoff Smith, Bloomberg Business Week
More than a year ago, I signed up for the American Express Blue Card and was disappointed to find that it's a clumsy way to buy things online. This so-called smart card, with an embedded computer chip, was billed as the next generation of technology for secure online transactions. But the software was annoying, and the credit-card reader -- a device that hooks up to your computer that was supposed to simplify the payment process -- had a blinking green light that was always on. My Blue card sits in my wallet, unused.  More