Equifax worries seep into Apple’s new iPhone rollout

Atlanta-based Equifax continued to draw heat Tuesday for its recently disclosed data breach affecting 143 million people, even seeping into news on Apple’s latest iPhone rollout.

Apple announced Tuesday that its latest iPhone upgrade will allow customers to use a facial recognition security feature as part of an expansion of its Apple Pay function to allow customers to make cashless payments using their cellphones.

But Matt Schultz, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com, said he sees cause for worry in the wake of Equifax’s issues.

“This is a high-risk move for Apple, especially in the wake of the Equifax breach,” he said Tuesday in a statement.

“That debacle has put data security front and center in people’s minds,’ he said. “If Apple’s facial recognition tool proves to be significantly flawed, it could really damage Apple’s hopes for Apple Pay expansion. People simply won’t use a payments tool if they don’t think it is safe.”

Apple rolled out its Apple Pay function a few years ago, but it hasn’t exactly taken the world by storm.

Meanwhile, Equifax has continued to struggle with angry reaction to last week’s news that hackers got access to millions of Social Security numbers and other sensitive data. The credit bureau is facing a growing number of lawsuits, investigations by state and federal agencies, and a Congressional committee or two.