ING Direct has released a way of paying friends funds via iPhone bumps, without even the necessity of account numbers. The iPhone app was released on Wednesday and uses an Application Programming Interface (API) created by Bump Technology (http://bu.mp/).
Bump technology, according to the company’s FAQ, works by sending information between the phones and the cloud: “The app on your phone uses the phone’s sensors to literally ‘feel’ the bump, and it sends that info up to the cloud. The matching algorithm listens to the bumps from phones around the world and pairs up phones that felt the same bump. Then we just route information between the two phones in each pair.”
Bump technology is usually and most often used for sharing photos, Facebook and Twitter information. This is the first time the technology has been used to share financial information.
There are some concerns the the iPhone may not be secure, a concern that frequently surrounds cloud computing. However, Bump assure users that it is a secure way of sharing information. The company explains that from Summer 2010 the information shared became 100% encrypted from one end to the other. They also assert that who will gain the information relies purely on who the user ‘bumps’ the information to. Thirdly, the company also determine that users’ information will never be shared with third party companies and direct users to their carefully crafted privacy policy.
Bump technology works on iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches and any Android phone – with room to expand into other phone platforms in the future. Bump technology is currently free, and the company states that it is likely to be free for a long time as the technology works best when a large amount of people use it.
However, the ING case is quite limited to certain situations, which limits its usefulness. You have to be in the same place, both having an ING direct bank account and both having either an iPhone or an Android phone platform.
Although currently a little limited, Bump technology is an interesting technology that hints at the future of the ways in which we will share information.
