The National Retail Federation on Thursday urged the Federal Trade Commission to move cautiously in establishingregulations for mobile payments.

“Mobile technology and processes are just beginning to emergeand we won't know which practices the public will like or whatmethods will provide new benefits until the technology begins tocoalesce,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel MalloryDuncan said in a release.

“The government should not impose regulations that wouldforestall yet-to-be-imagined advances and innovation in order toavoid potential 'harm' based largely on speculation,” Duncansaid.

“Some of the best innovations on the Internet today might havebeen suspect a generation ago but today they are benefits fewconsumers would want to live without,” he said. “The public veryoften embraces change as the 'future' becomes 'now.' Familiaritybreeds content.”

Duncan was scheduled to participate in an FTC workshop on mobilepayments Thursday called “Paper, Plastic… or Mobile?” as part of apanel discussion on privacy issues.

Duncan noted that a phone itself is “just a device, not apayment” and that actual payment could take place via a credit ordebit card, directly from a bank account, be processed through theuser's phone bill, or be made through other means.

Any privacy rules developed for mobile payments should be nomore restrictive than those for the underlying form of payment, hesaid.

“Retailers have always wanted to know their customers so theycan serve them better and that doesn't change simply because themethod of payment changes,” Duncan said. “Mobile might helpretailers get to know their customers more like they knew theircustomers generations ago, and offer more personalizedservice.”

Duncan said federal officials need to address a number of issuesincluding a definition of what constitutes a mobile payment. Thatcould include a payment made in a bricks-and-mortar store using asmartphone, a payment made for an online purchase on the samedevice, or payments made on a portable device such as an iPadtablet or a laptop computer.