Tokenization

A security technique that replaces sensitive data (like a credit card number) with a safe placeholder.

Tokenization is like swapping your house key with a hotel keycard. The real key is kept locked away, and you get a temporary version that only works in specific places. In payments, tokenization protects your card data by replacing it with a token, an identifier that only makes sense to the payment system that created it. Even if a hacker steals it, it’s mostly useless. This is a core layer of modern payment security and powers tools like Apple Pay and browser-based checkouts.