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Shopping Mall SMS Parking Notifications Could Be Used To Track Any Car (itnews.com.au)
Bismillah writes: Westfield's Scentre Group has removed SMS notifications for its ticketless parking system after it was discovered they could be used to track other people's cars unnoticed. The system allows you to enter any licence plate, which in turn will be scanned upon entry and exit at mall parking facilities — and when the free parking time is up, a notification message is sent to the mobile phone number entered, with the exact location of the car.
To fire!
That is the way of their kind.
For a place where you have to pay for parking, it makes sense to send SMS notifications indicating where you parked (upon request) and when you leave the garage. The part about where you parked could help people find their car if they don't remember where they parked (there's a Seinfeld episode about this). I'd recommend charging a fee for the service and requiring people to use their phone at a terminal (NFC or something similar) to discourage abuse while making a bit of money in the process. Another option and layer of security is to require them to take a ticket upon entering the garage, at which point the license plate is scanned. The ticket contains a unique ID that must be entered to activate the service, and can only be associated with that license plate.
It really doesn't make a lot of sense to send SMS notifications upon entering or leaving the garage for a mall, nor does it make sense to have non-free parking. If I have to pay to park at a mall, I'm likely to spend less time inside browsing items I might by and therefore spend less money. It's a bad business move and really doesn't make sense. The model could work where paid parking makes more sense, as long as a credit card and a unique ID given on entry that is only valid for that license plate number is used.
By the way, can we please ban the "how very Republican" spam going on above by the same AC who's been doing this same shit just about every night? At least please mod him into oblivion.
I know. Those republicans are always tracking us.
In Australia?
It's not representative of the site at all. It's one jackass who posts this type of spam on a regular basis, replying to himself as AC.
Here's one example: http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8657315&cid=51359929 (posting about how Republicans want people to die)
Another example: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8685139&cid=51400945 (making BS claims about Facebook tolerating and promoting gun violence)
There are others. It's almost certainly one assclown who ought to be banned or at least modded into oblivion. I'm hoping the new owners get rid of some of the shit like this. I don't really mind real trolls that post on-topic stuff. Some of it's actually pretty damn funny. Even some of the old -1 logged-in posters like cyborg_monkey were entertaining. Besides, they didn't waste mod points because they were already at -1 and you could easily avoid reading them. But I'd like to see really stupid nonsense like this go away. As one user said, real trolls would either make us laugh or piss us off; this guy does neither and is just a waste.
Excellent idea! An RFID tag on your vehicle (motor or pedaled) links it with whatever phone number you register it to, and then anyone can message you when necessary.
My bicycle is being constantly tampered with by meth heads in the city, and I think its long overdue that the places I frequent for business should provide this kind of service. Automatically send me a txt when the meth heads are trying to rip parts off it so I can go pepper spray them in the face since the city's law enforcement doesn't ever do squat.
Fucking Trump strikes again with windmills as big as his giant dollar cake.
yeah, it's just Republicans. There are no "those" Republicans. They're all wacko.
Except Trump. We need a new word for him.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
> posting about how Republicans want people to die
Are you really making the claim that they don't? They're doing nothing about AGW. They want to end the EPA. They want to end WIC. They want to end most of the negative income tax rates(EITC). They want to end public education. They want to require cash-upfront healthcare. All of those things demonstrate their desired endgame.
So they were surprised that their technology to track cars can be used to track cars? Who knew!
On a less sarcastic note, the problem seems to be that they don't require you to prove you're the owner of the car in order to register it with their system. Therefore, you could register anyone's car and use the malls' systems to track the real owner.
> If I have to pay to park at a mall, I'm likely to spend less time inside browsing items I might by and therefore spend less money. It's a bad business move and really doesn't make sense.
Depends on the location of the mall. Here in Barcelona several malls offer 2 to 3 hours of free parking; if they were free all day long the garages would be full of commuters' cars, leaving no parking for actual shoppers. The only mall offering completely free parking is at the very edge of the city, still too far out for most to use as a commuting lot.
You americans...
When you park a car, there is a "parking area code" lets say, it's a AF69. Those are visible on a post or wall or what ever.
You send a message: "[Car license plate] AF69" and your parking starts. if there is 15 min free parking, you send it "[Car license plate] AF69 15"
When you are done, you either sms or call another number, that stops your parking in area AF69 and replies to you with a message.
DONE!
Works in EU!
gonna be good!
LOL
Especially when the commander in chief for the past 8 years has been a democrat and spying (capabilities) would have only increased under his watch. Sheesh!
Unfortunately we don't have much choice in many Australian suburbs.
Public transport is often crap, and street parking is congested and even more expensive than shopping centre (mall) parking!
All levels of our governments (local, state, federal) are lapping-up the benefits of increased population density, expecting the ill-effects to be borne by future political parties. (Gotta love democracy.)
- local governments: approving high-density housing and getting additional council rates (however they're not building any more schools for the extra families)
- state governments: massive jump in stamp duty (but they're not building anywhere near the hospitals / roads we need to accommodate the increased population)
- federal government: extra tax revenue, temporary "kick" to the economy from population boost (again, not spending near enough of infrastructure, and life is getting ridiculously expensive)
And don't even get me started about what the influx of foreign buyers has done to real-estate prices in Australia. ... Australia tops the list.
See this chart by The Economist, clicking on the tab "Prices against average income"
(Finishing my long rant) ... and that is why we pay so much for mall (shopping centre) parking in Australia.
" If I have to pay to park at a mall, I'm likely to spend less time inside browsing items I might by and therefore spend less money. It's a bad business move and really doesn't make sense."
Malls grew in the US precisely so that shoppers could avoid the paid-parking trap in the old downtowns. But the whole situation in Europe is different: compact, high-density cities that have lush public transit systems, making cars an option, not a necessity. If you can take a subway to the basement of the mall, why drive in the city? And for those times when you buy something big or exceptionally valuable, there are delivery services. Meanwhile the mall is built in much more expensive land than in an American suburb, meaning no vast surrounding acreage of parking lots. Parking is typically in a garage under the mall itself.
The business owners at the mall appreciate you for quickly making a parking space available for another paying customer.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
It is not the foreign buyers who have priced out the real estate market for most Australians, it is the mega rich. Almost 20% !!! of our homes are empty investment properties waiting to be placed on the market at a trickle to maximise return. Of course the politicians and media will say otherwise, claiming much lower vacancy rates, the water usage rates tell a different story of either a LOT of unwashed, coke and beer only drinking masses or a lot of empty investment properties being held back from sale.