Domino’s Pizza, one of the world’s largest takeaway chains, has just announced its latest technological development: zero-click ordering via its latest app.
The premise is simple: the customer creates a user profile and chooses their favourite pizza. The next time the app is opened, it will begin a 10-second countdown, after which time the app will automatically order the ‘favourite’ pizza, take payment and arrange delivery without the customer having to make another click.
This is a big step forward in convenience for pizza-lovers who want to order their favourite pizza with as little effort required as possible. But it also raises questions about security and authentication.
As TheNextWeb reports, it’s easy to accidently open an app, call a contact or even send an accidental message without meaning to – all while your phone is in your pocket or your bag. Customers preferring convenience over security may also not have a PIN, fingerprint or even a pattern lock on their phone. This makes it all the more possible to accidentally open the app, fail to act within ten seconds, and then find an unwanted pizza delivered and payment taken from the account.
The customer should then inform Dominos of the authorised transaction and claim a refund. However, as we know from other industries, many customers bypass the seller completely and inform their bank of the unauthorised payment, which then reimburses the funds. These are reclaimed by the bank from the seller, along with a fine. To cover these costs, the seller is then forced to raise prices for the customer
In July 2014, Mail Online reported on a Domino’s customer in Wales who was accidentally charged almost £180,000 for a pizza after extra digits were erroneously added to his bill. His bank, Lloyds, quickly refunded the customer along with extra compensation for the inconvenience. Mistakes like this do happen but zero-click ordering creates a grey area of proving whether or not a transaction has been legitimately made.
As pizza-lovers, we love the idea of this new app from Domino’s that gets us our favourite pizza quicker and easier than ever before. But as chargebacks experts, the prospect of unauthorised transactions hitting customers and local chains means we will be making doubly-sure that our phones are well secured.
