Google Wallet already hacked to work on Verizon Galaxy Nexus

Google Wallet already hacked to work on Verizon Galaxy Nexus

It has been a couple of days since the Galaxy Nexus has been launched on Verizon sans Google Wallet. Verizon is charging $299 for the latest Ice Cream Sandwich, NFC touting smartphone, and Amazon has already half priced it down to $149.99. The Free Press has written a letter to the FCC requesting that Verizon is investigated for not allowing Google Wallet on its network and for what the organization calls “blocking the app”. Well, the developers over at XDA-Developers have already hacked Google Wallet to work on the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon’s network. It’s been a busy week for the Galaxy Nexus. The news that the Galaxy Nexus can run Google Wallet, however, has been tempered by a report that some insecurities have been found in Google Wallet when running on a rooted NFC smartphone.

The insecurity isn’t with the card details in the Google Wallet and thus secure element itself, and are more about some transaction details that Google is storing in SQLite databases. Google has updated the app and removed many of the issues and has told NFC Rumors that it is working on storing information in different ways in upcoming versions of Google Wallet.

Should you hack your Verizon Galaxy Nexus to run Google Wallet?

Well, at the end of the day it is up to you. We do have some advice for you though. Firstly, if you do hack Google Wallet on to your Galaxy Nexus, know you are breaking Google’s terms and services of using the service. We don’t think Google is enforcing its terms, however, if you do have your Galaxy Nexus running on Verizon and it is compromised and you lose sensitive data or have your account emptied, don’t expect Google to do anything about it. Google as yet has no relationship with Verizon that would allow the Google Wallet on its network.

Secondly, before Google updates Google Wallet and when you have rooted your phone, there is information that a thief could get at that includes partial card detail. This may not be enough to make a transaction, but your purchase history and card limits and balances are accessible. These details are not available in non-rooted Galaxy Nexus, which remains 100% secure at this time.

We have been vocal in our opposition of what Verizon and Isis are doing blocking third party mobile wallets off the network. We would like Verizon users to be able to have choice about the services they use, but we cannot at the moment advise that consumers enable Google Wallet on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. As Google updates the Google Wallet and encrypts the data that is housed outside of the secure element, our advice will change. For now, however, you may want to hold off enabling Google Wallet to the Verizon Galaxy Nexus by gaining root privileges, although we doubt it will take Google long to plug the holes.