in anybody using android/apple/samsung pay?

Between the credit card companies and the U.S. Treasury. The CC companies (notiably VIS& MasterCard) are offering some places money to no longer accept cold hard cash.

Been using Apple Pay selectively at places it's available. We used the Discover deal mentioned above. That made it worthwhile but it is still semi convenient for us.

...but my son does from time to time.

When it's available. It's quicker and more secure than swiping/chipping. No signing.

Great to use for quick purchases, and my bank uses a pseudo card number for purchases.

If someone takes possession of your phone, is you money still safe?

The FBI can't hack open the iPhone. If you turn on the proper security, even the FBI can't get to it.

Very safe #1 the merchant will not see your CC number but only the number generated by Apple #2 to complete a transaction you need your fingerprint on the phone.

It's pretty good. Easy to use. No problems so far. Supposedly more secure than anything else out there.

Many retailers don't know they have the capability, so encourage them to try. It's still a 'miracle' to many out there.

I use it from my Apple Watch too, very convenient.

Works good now. We'll see later when the skimmers or other hacking methods come about.

Security on smartphones can be cracked within minutes even by 8th graders. So I don't recommend it at all.

I'm an IT guy by the way.

That's the (software) encryption part, not the hardware. Hardware securities (fingerprint scanner, pattern lock, etc.) can be cracked easily.

The FBI and other law enforcement entities have thousands of thousands of smartphones in their possession, waiting to find a way to crack them. The FBI vs Apple was one of the more famous cases, where Apple refused to help the FBI get past the hardware securities. It was and is the hardware securities that keeps that from getting near the encrypted data. A case that is ongoing is that a guy is being held in jail to entice him to give up his smartphone password to the police so the police can see what is on the phone. He's been held for months. The LE can not get into the phone on their own.

I guess I don't shop at the right places as the ones I frequent don't accept Apple Pay. As I understand it, part of the reasoning is that the transaction is nearly anonymous to them just like if you used cash and they want to collect personal data through the pinpad for advertising or other reasons and so they setup their own smartphone pay apps as Walmart and Target has done.

The latest implementation by the stores like Sams Club and selected Walmarts is to use your phone to scan your items as you put them in your cart and this allows you to skip the checkout line entirely. The person at the exit scans resulting bar code on your phone's screen as you leave. At Sams Club, it is fairly easy for the associate to do an item count in your cart, but I'm not sure how this works at Walmart with a buggy full of groceries.

That's true when people use stupid weak passwords, like 1-2-3-4. doh.

Most users don't ENCRYPT their phones.

Which is why Google has Android encrypt devices by default. If the bootloader is also encrypted* there's no way to disable the encryption. Root is required, and with an encrypted (i.e. locked) bootloader root cannot be achieved.

*All current Samsung devices, some Huawei devices, and all devices sold by AT&T and Verizon.

The Apple vs FBI case had nothing to do with encryption. The FBI wanted Apple to take the "guard dog " away so the FBI could get at the encrypted data. The guard dog was the user determined passcode (and/or fingerprint). The FBI had run out of tries at the user passcode and was at risk of the phone self wiping. The FBI couldn't get past the guard dog, proving once again that a strong passcode is very good at protecting the device.

Law enforcement around the country has thousands and thousands of iPhones in their possession that they can't get into because of this, proving once again that a strong passcode is very good at protecting the device.