Consumer confidence in smartphone shopping depends on location-based security

Location profile information from mobile phones will be used to validate 90 per cent of mobile transactions by 2013, according to Gartner

Businesses will rely on location-based security to increase confidence in purchases done via smartphone

By 2013, location information or profile information from mobile phones will be used to validate 90 per cent of mobile transactions, according to analyst firm Gartner.

The firm said that the improved browser experience offered by smartphones has led to the rapid adoption of the devices, which in turn is forcing banks, social networks and other e-commerce providers to look for ways to detect fraud by, or against, mobile users.

“Fraud detection tools that are available today that work in fixed-line computing environments don't work well or at all in the mobile world,” said William Clark, research vice president at Gartner.

He added that there are a number of methods that can be implemented to help enterprises detect fraud in the mobile space, but they are still in their early stages of development.

The evolution of location and context-aware fraud detection tools is needed to increase the confidence of businesses, financial institutions and end users when processing a transaction, according to Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

"This increase in confidence will help open up new possibilities for context awareness that will be richer than they are in fixed-line commerce."