Amazon’s new PayPhrase system utterly redundant

Amazon has launched a Web payments scheme that allows shoppers to use a memorable phrase and a PIN code in place of a user name and password. It seems utterly pointless, particularly given the lack of participating sites.

The concept of PayPhrase is simple: users create a unique phrase of at least two words with a minimum total of four characters. They then pick a four-digit PIN code. These details are then linked to their account and can be used to authorize a payment at any time without needing to remember the usual log-in details of an e-mail address and password.

Which only leaves one question: What’s the point?

If you’re using your home computer and, like most people, have Amazon’s 1-click switched on, the PayPhrase system is irrelevant as you don’t need to log-in to place an order. (And let’s be honest, who among us has never made impulse purchases on Amazon where even the couple of seconds spent remembering and typing in a phrase and PIN might have given us a chance to think twice?)

If you have 1-click switched off or are in the rare situation of using Amazon on somebody else’s machine, PayPhrase won’t be any easier than an e-mail/password combination. However memorable the phrase you choose, there’s still a chance you’ll forget something you use relatively rarely, whereas it’s hardly difficult to remember your e-mail address. And despite being longer and throwing in letters as well as digits, a password is likely much easier to remember than a PIN code.

The system is also arguably less secure. If you’re using a brute force attack, you’d much rather work on phrases — which are easier prey for dictionary-based attacks — than e-mail addresses which often include abbreviations of names rather than real words. And cracking a four-digit number is substantially easier than figuring out the longer alphanumeric string of a password.

Another feature allowing Amazon account holders to set up a PayPhrase for another family member such as a child at home or a college student, allowing them to spend up to a set limit each month. The account holder can also set the system up so that each of these purchases must get their approval first. If you want to give your son or daughter at college some money for textbooks and make sure they actually spend it on textbooks, this might be useful. (You could just loosen up and let them learn adult responsibility, but that’s an argument beyond BLORGE’s tech remit.)

The only other thing close to useful about PayPhrase is that you can use it on some partner Web sites. (Of course, Amazon could have set it up so you use your user name and password instead, but whatever…) And even that is somewhat limited by the fact that only six sites are currently signed up, with Buy.com the only one which isn’t a specialist retailer.

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