Smart cards track commuters

bbc ^ | Thursday, 25 September, 2003, 11:32 GMT 12:32 UK | By Aaron Scullion

[GirlyGirl2003]

Smart cards track commuters

By Aaron Scullion

BBC News Online staff

Civil rights campaigners have expressed concerns about the new smart travelcards introduced for London commuters.

Under the new system, Transport for London will be able to track a commuter's movements and it plans to retain information on journeys made for "a number of years"

Each card has a unique ID number linked to the registered owner's name, which is recorded together with the location and time of the exchange every time the card is used.

The data, retained for business purposes, could be released to law enforcement agencies under certain conditions.

Anyone hoping to use a monthly or annual season ticket will have to register their details with Transport for London, although anonymous cards will be available to those willing to pay per journey.

The civil rights group Liberty told BBC News Online that commuters should be able to opt out of the system if they had privacy concerns.

How it works

The new system uses the Oyster smart card, which Transport for London began distributing to commuters in the summer.

The smart card is 'contactless', meaning customers do not have to insert their cards into a card reader.

SMARTCARD SCHEMES

Many countries, including the US, Germany and Singapore, already use smart cards

Hong Kong's Octopus smart card was established in 1997, and is said to be the most successful system of its kind in the world

In the rest of the UK, there are plans to introduce a smart card that can be used on any form of transport, in any town or city

Instead, the new card must be quickly placed on top of a reader and does not even need to be removed from its holder to work.

A small amount of data about the commuter holding the card, including a unique ID number, is stored on it.

When the card is presented at a tube station or on a bus, the ID number, together with information including the location and time of the transaction, is sent from the card reader to a central database.

In time, Transport for London have a database with the exact movements of a significant number of the people who live or work in London.

'Journey planning'

But those behind the scheme were keen to stress that the information is being held for business purposes.

"It's not so much about the individual. It's about understanding passenger travel better", said John Monk of the Oyster project.

"The fact that the card belongs to a given person is irrelevant, to some degree, until we try to provide customer service for that passenger.

People should have the right to opt out

Mark Littlewood of Liberty

"But if someone were to lose their card, you would want to be able to trace it back to them in order to replace it."

Mr Monk stressed that Transport for London are only collecting the data to "improve the journey planning process."

"The information has to be retained to allow tracking across the system, to tie the journeys made on an individual travelcard together."

Data that can identify people's movements is being held locally for eight weeks, according to Mr Monk, to allow reports to be produced, and then "archived for a number of years."

An anonymous pre-pay card will be available early in 2004, but Mr Monk added that customers would not be able to buy season tickets, for example, until they had personalised the cards.

"People who don't trust the technology can still come on board, and when they feel comfortable, they can register and get all the extra benefits that will bring."

Anyone unwilling to register their details with Transport for London will be at a financial disadvantage.

The cost of a year's travel in central London with a season ticket is £660. Anyone commuting to work on a pre-pay card, making 10 journeys a week, will pay a total of £832.

'Function creep'

In the UK, people's movements are already indirectly tracked in a number of ways. Mobile phone companies keep records of the location of their customers for a number of years, while the number plates of individual cars on the public highway are read and recorded by a number of different organisations.

Law enforcement agencies can gain access to stored electronic data of this nature, and Mr Monk admitted it was "likely the information would be used for court evidence."

Such information is a boon to those seeking to combat crime, but many feel that people's privacy is undermined by this kind of monitoring.

"All too often we have seen data collected for one apparent purpose, only for it to end up being used for something entirely different", said Mark Littlewood, campaign director of civil rights group Liberty.

"We will be monitoring the situation carefully to ensure that this sort of 'function creep' doesn't occur in this instance," added Mr Littlewood.

"If anyone wishes to store information on people's journeys for their own planning purposes, they should at least ensure that travellers are fully informed of this.

"It is also important that people have a right to opt out of the system."

A spokesperson for the government body which looks after data protection issues, the Information Commissioner, stated that there were valid commercial reasons for holding the data, but that it was important that Transport for London did not misuse the information gathered.

Whilst these privacy concerns currently only affect commuters in London, the country's other major transport companies are working on a smartcard scheme which could have similar implications for commuters.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/3121652.stm

Published: 2003/09/25 11:32:39 GMT

© BBC MMIII

[GirlyGirl2003]

WARNING!!! Never ever place any toll tag, smartcard, oyster card in a metal box or common aluminum foil, and never do the same to your cell phone as you drive or walk around. Doing so will block all communication with the world around you and will prohibit government officials and others from tracking you. Just a small piece of foil fully covering any of these will totally shield thses devices....toll tags, phones , etc. Don't do it. You might upset a government spy.

[Numbers Guy]

It's always amusing to check out at a grocery store and have the person ask if I have their "card". I say "no". Occasionally they ask why not. I say "because I'm not comfortable with the idea of you keeping track of what I buy. That's my business, not yours."

They get a really confused look on their faces. They can't fathom the idea of a person wanting some privacy.

[Bob J]

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[RS]

"Just a small piece of foil fully covering any of these will totally shield thses devices....toll tags, phones , etc. Don't do it. You might upset a government spy."

You forgot the tin foil hat, for the implants !

[cyborg]

I've given up. I know the government is tracking me because I have a mobile that is on all the time. On Star and all such devices are just tools of the Army, just the same way they pimped Jet Blue for personal info.

If the government wants info on anyone, they can well get it if they want no matter what we do.

[muawiyah]

The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.

[Cicero]

Who cares? What will the government DO with overwhelming amounts of trivial information about its citizens?

I use a grocery card because it saves money.

I use a senior citizen subway card in NYC for the same reason--a 50% savings. The system is able to read the card, in part so I can't use it twice to give someone traveling with me a lower fare, but I really don't care if some computer knows that I travel between this station and that one. So what?

[RS]

I've given up. I know the government is tracking me because I have a mobile that is on all the time."

Trash it - haven't had a mobile since the box was in the trunk and the portable was over your shoulder :-)

If they want me.. they'll just have to wait...

[Cheapskate]

I know that I sound like a broken record , but here it goes Ins't it just wonderful for you Brits to be living in a land that has NO Bill Of Rights!

[cyborg]

LOL... I know I have a file because I was in the Air Force. Do I think everyone has a file? Probably not. I resisted getting a mobile phone but now I have a social life. Oh well... even me someone who really DID wear a tinfoil hat has to have friends.

Cheers.

[cookcounty]

When I was in Singapore, you could use the smart card to take a train ride, get off, use it to buy a magazine, then go across the street and buy a latte with it, , then go back home on the bus with it. Kinda cool, but the tracking thing could be put to nasty uses.

[cookcounty]

"So what?"

I doubt there is any "danger" at present in using it, but if you think about totalitarian scenarios of the future, it isn't too hard to imagine that it would become impossible to go anywhere, meet anyone without "Big Brother" having total monitoring capability.

[GOPcapitalist]

It's always amusing to check out at a grocery store and have the person ask if I have their "card". I say "no". Occasionally they ask why not. I say "because I'm not comfortable with the idea of you keeping track of what I buy. That's my business, not yours."

Agreed. Although sometimes I try to have fun with their system by intentionally making bulk purchases for various reasons on single trips. On one day they have me buying one package of every different brand of gummy worms in the store and nothing else. On another they've got a single pepper out of every different pepper bin in the store. There's also a trip for a single banana, a trip for about 14 boxes of kleenex, a trip with one of each color of Now n' Laters out of the 10 cent a piece candy bin totalling about 60 cents for the entire purchase, and all sorts of other similar things like that. But when I get normal groceries I don't scan my card. So next time you decide to get 30 cans of squirty cheese and nothing else, scan your card. But not for anything normal.

[RS]

"When I was in Singapore, you could use the smart card to take a train ride, get off, use it to buy a magazine, then go across the street and buy a latte with it, , then go back home on the bus with it. Kinda cool, but the tracking thing could be put to nasty uses."

Didn't work like that 2 years ago - Trains were great tho...
Y'mean I could have been buying Tigers on that card ?

[RS]

I doubt there is any "danger" at present in using it, but if you think about totalitarian scenarios of the future, it isn't too hard to imagine that it would become impossible to go anywhere, meet anyone without "Big Brother" having total monitoring capability."

But it might get more fun - "OK - at noon we all go to Trafalger Square and trade monthly pass cards ! "

[Fred Mertz]

I use a grocery card because it saves money.

I trust you don't purchase alcohol, tobacco or high cholesterol foods with it, do you?

[natewill]

yeah, but all you have to do is make up a fictitious persona. You think King Soopers has my real name address phone DNA bloodtype? I told them I was George somebody, because when they asked for my name, I was thinking of George Costanza from Seinfeld.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

This is *exactly* one of the reasons why I refuse to get an I-Pass here in the Chicago area (I-Pass good for paying tolls on the tollway).

Illinois tollways don’t monitor individual motorists — yet

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

PING to my post above.

[ridesthemiles]

I foil them again and again. I pay with cash or money orders and keep my bank account mainly because of an insurance policy that is over 30 yrs old that has to be taken out of my account every month. I also don't like the grocery cards. I have worked at large chains in the accounting departments. They tell you that they need to use the cards to track inventory. BS.!!! There are a number of ways to track inventory. If they have sold it, they need to replace it-simple as that. Knowing if they sold it to a "cardmember" , a cash customer like myself or to a traveler just passing thru doesn't change the movement of the inventory and the need to replace it. Don't buy their BS and get sucked into the "savings" of the cards. If they dropped the cards altogether, and the accompanying accounting and recordkeeping, they could drop all their prices to a reasonable level. One store locally sells steaks at #6.99/lb without the card and $3.99/lb with the card. That is a ripoff, and I won't play into their game.