In the payments industry, we all strive to help merchants provide their customers with a frictionless shopping and checkout experience. New ventures with novel solutions are continually seeking to take the industry by storm. And an emerging area within our sphere involves shopping and payments done via social media. In this dynamic arena, established companies are racing to secure the lead, and new contenders are striving to get an edge. In all of this, security remains a pressing concern.
The delicate balance between innovation in social media payments and safeguarding data is central to this issue's lead article. In our efforts to transform the market, we cannot forget that mostly hidden from view, fraudsters package datasets from social media and mobile apps for quick sale on the Dark Web.
Emerging forms of payment and data security have also been in the news recently. Some of our latest stories cover Venmo's default settings, which make users' purchasing information public; concerns about a collaboration formed by Facebook to create a new cryptocurrency that would be stable, but centered on a social media giant that many users are leery of trusting with their financial data; proposed legislation in Congress designed to stop online platforms from misleading consumers on apps and websites; and EMVCo's release of Secure Remote Commerce Specification v1.0, which was created to enable the processing of ecommerce transactions in a consistent, streamlined fashion across a variety of digital channels and devices.
Security was also on the mind of a contributing writer who shares herein key insights gleaned while attending the recent CNP Expo. Other industry experts addressed security as well: one wrote a primer on what "the cloud" is, advantages to migrating to the cloud, how to use the cloud safely; another delved deeply into the pros and cons of Facebook's cryptocurrency initiative. Additional topics explored by industry veterans include what merchant level salespeople can expect from ISOs and processors and how to apply lessons learned from painting to relationships with merchants.
Also within these pages are updates on individual and company milestones, new product and company profiles, and more information about happenings in the industry. We always appreciate your comments and suggestions. What do you like about the resources we provide, and what could we do even better? Reach out to us at greensheet@greensheet.com. And please send your press releases to press@greensheet.com. We look forward to hearing from you. 
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