apple may be violating standards and laws with its credit card policy for iPhones, an informal investigation has revealed. Typically, buying an iPhone at an Apple Store requires either a credit or a debit card, although it may be possible to pay as little as $1 of the $399 price in this way. The company does not accept payments entirely in cash however, and has not so far explained why. It is suspected that this is done to aid tracking purchases, since shoppers are limited to two phones per person, a measure to prevent bulk purchases for the gray market, whether domestically or in Europe, where the phones must also be hacked.

The difficulty with this, according to professionals within the credit card industry, is a global standard called PCI DSS. This is meant to protect users against privacy violations, specifically by detailing how information from a card can be used. The professionals claim that if Apple is tracking customer data via credit cards, this may violate a PCI DSS policy that numbers should only be used to complete transactions. This policy is also reflected in some agreements formed between card issuers and credit companies, as well as laws in various regions.

Employees at Visa have been told about the potential conflict, but have not yet responded on the subject of standards compliance. Based on the unusual delay, it is rumored that lawyers are now probing the legitimacy of Apple's policy in legal, contractual and PCI DSS terms.


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