Europe Adding RFID Tags to Euro Currency

An EETimes article a few days ago reports that the European Central Bank is planning to add RFID tags to euro bank notes. This would allow each bill to be tracked whenever it is used, and if the chip includes writable memory, to even record its own history.

Comments

Privacy

[Artagel]

What's in my wallet is my business. If a storeowner, or anyone with the right equipment can read how much money I have in my pocket, that bugs me. Heck, for all I know a well-equipped hacker/mugger will be able to spot targets using them.

Existing paper currency is not anonymous

[chundercanada]

Every normal paper bill has a serial number on it. ATMs could easily scan each bill as it is handed out, associating the person's account with that bill. When merchants turn in bills they can be scanned again. Or merchants can have point-of-sale bill scanners (to detect funny-money, of course). Clear all this data in a central location, apply some fuzzy-logic, and you have a prety damn good idea of who spent money where.

How many times do they need to find bills from your ATM withdrawl in the pot dealer's deposit bag before they knock on your door?

This idea was written up at DEC SRC years ago if I am not mistaken.

Re:oh well - maybe lead to ecash

[plover]

The infamous "50 euro note going up in smoke" video was proved to be a faked demo, put together by Intel and a group dedicated to keep the British pound from joining the euro.

Further testing by AMD showed that overclocking a 50 euro note to 100 euros and then removing the 1 euro coin (acting as the heat sink) would simply cause the 50 euro note to fail to respond, but it was not permanently damaged.

Meanwhile, a group from Norway has announced a Linux port to the 500 euro note. Slashdot trolls have announced they can not afford to make beowulf clusters of these notes.

John

Knee-jerk privacy complaints?

[glassware]

Come on. I've read five notable comments in this thread and they all say in effect "How can I disable this protection to prevent the government from spying on me?"

Yes, I am concerned about my privacy. I find it really painful that so many people have my phone number, my email address, and my home address. People send me offensive ads every day which I wish I could refuse without inviting more.

This said, why are people instantly opposed to money with copy protection? I have no objection to this money unless something goes severely wrong, for example:

The money requires me to input my name and address after acquiring it.

The money breaks if I don't take good care of it.

Retailers refuse to accept it because the copy protection is so burdensome.

The wierd thing is that existing money often has these problems. When I go to the bank and withdraw cash from my account, they ask me for my name and address on the withdrawal form. If I leave a twenty in the wash a few too many times, it might fall apart - sometimes you can get people to still take it, but often not. And most inexplicably, the new US $100 bill that has so many copy protection features on it - I can't use it anywhere! People simply refuse it and say "there's too many forgeries around." Isn't that odd?

If the ECB puts a 1k data chip on their money, and the money still works like normal money, I will encourage it.

Re:And their motives became crystal clear...

[zmooc]

You have worked 1.5yrs on your thesis? And still fail to mention the real reasons for the Euro? That must be why your comment is rated interesting. *G*

First of all: the Euro was not pushed by the banks. It was done by the governments.

Second: the European currencies have had fixed rates for a few years now and I still have to see any negative effect of that. The countries that are allowed to join in, have to have a very stable currency. Only fluctuation within a very small band was allowed. If a currency would fluctuate too much, the EMU would act upon by buying or selling the currency. It has been like this for many years now and so far this cooperation has only had benefits. In fact the system has even proven to work already waaay before we came up with the Euro. So why is a fixed currency not fair? If we decide we want to cooperate more, why not fix those rates? Or would you rather have a different currency in every state of the US? That would be more fair by your rules, wouldn't it.

Third: I don't see how the Euro allows any more control than the money we had before does. The cash is just the same, it only looks different and has a different value per unit. There is no additional tracking-system AT ALL. The banks don't get any additional control either, they only change Currency X into EURO and that's it. So what exactly are you talking about?

Next: in what way is the dollar any better than the Euro? Please give me some arguments before saying so. They're both just currencies. Money. Something to prevent us from having to trade cows for computers. It's nothing more than that. The ONLY reason why a currency would be any better, would be that it's value is more stable compared to the value of other currencies. Maybe the dollar is more stable (I don't believe it is, but I may be wrong). One thing I can tell you: the Euro is most certainly a lot more stable than 16 different independant currencies. So that would make the Euro better than all currencies we're using now here in the EU.

Last: What does the amount of civil rights organizations have to do with this? Are there really more of such organizations in the US (as compared to the EU)? Please give me some facts. And then think about why this could be....maybe they're simply needed more in the US?