Kirk Lennon has a great summary on how Apple Pay works and why we should start using it immediately. He ends his article with one of the objections to Apple’s new payment service:
One of the objections I’ve seen to Apple Pay is “How is it faster/easier than just sliding my card?” The truth is, it isn’t always. It’s rarely going to take longer than sliding a card, but it’s not always going to radically faster either. However, it is much, much more secure. Merchants simply can’t be trusted with your card number, and the only real solution is to never give it to them. Apple Pay solves that, and it does so in a way that embraces industry standards and is easy and maybe even a little bit fun.
There are still unknowns about how Apple Pay works in the background. But it’s certain that merchants don’t get access to your personal information, unlike the not-yet-launched competitor CurrentC, that is gathering all sorts of details about the customer along with a cumbersome payment process that includes crappy old robot barf.