Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Smartcards to Track London Commuters

Posted by michael on from the skip-the-orwell-references-please dept.

misterpies writes "Technophiles across London have been excited about the recent introduction of Oyster smartcards on public transport to replace old-fashioned paper tickets. Their enthusiasm might cool off now that London Transport has admitted that not only can the card be used to track your journey across London -- they're actually going to keep the data for 'a number of years'. Add that to their congestion charge cameras used for tracking car movements and pretty soon you'll have to stick to walking if you don't want your movements tracked. Until they implement those facial recognition systems that were such a great success in Tampa, Florida."

2 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Paying for privacy... by Kierthos · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    In Soviet Russia, lame ass comments post you!

    Kierthos

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  2. Can someone explain to me... by gladed · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Can someone explain to me why it's so gosh-durned important to pretend my actions in a public arena are really private?

    Oh right, the evil gummint will track all of my "private" usage of public transportation and ... and ... do something evil with that info like nefariously improving the schedules.

    And my evil local supermarket will track my purchases and give this "private" information to evil marketers who will ... um ... try to provide products and services that I want. The humanity!

    If you want to stay anonymous then wear a paper bag on your head 24/7 and pay for everything with coin (you know those Euros have RFID tags in them now). But you might attract attention and, uh-oh, someone might write a newspaper article about you ... better stay home with shades drawn.