Smartphones could replace using plastic for purchases at stores.

It’s the closest many of us have ever come to mobile payments: watching the person ahead of us at Starbucks buy a latte with a smartphone. Or seeing someone at Chipotle skip ahead in line. Or watching over some dude’s shoulder at Rite Aid, as he taps his Android smartphone against the card machine on the counter.

But these aren’t just blips: They signal a concerted campaign by major companies — from some of the biggest big-box retailers to the mobile phone carriers — for more control over how our money moves.

Read more: Credit cards on way out?

Retail sales rose 1.1% last month, signaling consumers’ eagerness to spend as a harsh winter faded to spring.

The gain was the largest since September 2012 and exceeded economists’ consensus forecast of 0.8%, according to Action Economics’survey. Excluding the volatile category of motor vehicles and parts, February’s retail sales were revised up to a gain of 0.7% from January, the Commerce Department saidMonday, more than twice the original estimate. Sales fell in December and January.

Read more: Retail sales log biggest gain in 18 months

New technology coming that could help protect merchants and banks from theft.

Target may have lost our data, but the retail giant gave us some new vocabulary words: “EMV card,” or perhaps “smart-chip card.”

In urgent conversations around dinner tables and in the halls of Congress, two points have gained almost universal acceptance:
No. 1: Collectively, merchants, banks and the payment networks must do more to safeguard our identities.
No. 2: Chip-embedded cards, widely used outside the U.S., are the quickest way to do that.

Read more: Smart-chip cards safer, not foolproof