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'How I Went Dark In Australia's Surveillance State For 2 Years' (cnet.com)
schwit1 shares a report from CNET, written by Claire Reilly: In 2015, during the transition from paper to Opal [contactless public transit cards], Australia passed sweeping new data retention laws. These laws required all Australian internet service providers and telecommunications carriers to retain customers' phone and internet metadata for two years -- details like the phone number a person calls, the timestamps on text messages or the cell tower a phone pings when it makes a call. Suddenly, Australians were fighting for the right to stay anonymous in a digital world. On one side of the fence: safety-conscious civilians. They argued that this metadata was a powerful tool and that the ability to track a person's movements through phone pings or call times was vital for law enforcement. On the other side of the fence: digital civil libertarians. They argued that the data retention scheme was invasive and that this metadata could be used to build up an incredibly detailed picture of someone's life. And sitting in a barn two paddocks away from that fence: me, switching out burner phones and researching VPNs. When it emerged that police had the power to search Opal card data, track people's movements and match this to individual users, it was the last straw. August 2016 rolled around, paperless tickets were phased out and I hatched my plan. The Black Opal. The concept of the Black Opal is simple. Buy your transport card. Pay cash. Top up with cash (preferably in a new location each time). Never register it. Never link it to your credit or debit card. Live off the grid. Stay away from The Man.
[Reilly discusses the problems she faced:] All the top-up machines at train stations, light rail stops and ferry terminals were card-only affairs. One tap on that baby and you were back in the system. So, if I was busing downtown for a work meeting, I'd have to factor in extra time to get to an ATM, get cash out and then find somewhere to top up my card. Running for the train with friends, I was the one who had to divert three blocks, change jackets, burn off my fingerprints and find a nondescript corner store to top up. Here's what I learned. No one likes the paranoid one. [...] I finally came undone last week. Racing for a flight, I forgot about my Black Opal. I'd had an unusually busy week on public transport, and my balance was low. On the train to the airport terminal, it hit me. Did I have enough money on my card to pay the AU$17.76 tap-off fee that they use to gouge tourists at the airport? As I rode up the escalators and the exit turnstiles came into view, my heart sank. No ATM. No cash in my wallet. Just a row of bright green Opal readers and a top-up machine. Card only. With one trip, my years of off-grid living were undone. I slumped against the top-up machine and swiped my debit card. I was just 9 cents short, but it cost me so much more than that. My Black Opal was dead.
[Reilly discusses the problems she faced:] All the top-up machines at train stations, light rail stops and ferry terminals were card-only affairs. One tap on that baby and you were back in the system. So, if I was busing downtown for a work meeting, I'd have to factor in extra time to get to an ATM, get cash out and then find somewhere to top up my card. Running for the train with friends, I was the one who had to divert three blocks, change jackets, burn off my fingerprints and find a nondescript corner store to top up. Here's what I learned. No one likes the paranoid one. [...] I finally came undone last week. Racing for a flight, I forgot about my Black Opal. I'd had an unusually busy week on public transport, and my balance was low. On the train to the airport terminal, it hit me. Did I have enough money on my card to pay the AU$17.76 tap-off fee that they use to gouge tourists at the airport? As I rode up the escalators and the exit turnstiles came into view, my heart sank. No ATM. No cash in my wallet. Just a row of bright green Opal readers and a top-up machine. Card only. With one trip, my years of off-grid living were undone. I slumped against the top-up machine and swiped my debit card. I was just 9 cents short, but it cost me so much more than that. My Black Opal was dead.
I only read the headline (mea culpa) but talk about the best way to raise a red flag... you want to blend in...
https://www.cnet.com/news/how-...
The "black opal" idea is fairly ridiculous. Home IP + work IP is enough to uniquely identify someone. Simply tapping out at the airport might be enough to de-anonymize the card: passenger manifests are probably efficiently searchable by shrink-wrap surveillance software like Palantir's, and the small set of people departing the airport within a four-hour window plus some other weak bit of information is probably enough to uniquely identify you and thus all your past and future trips on that card. "Co-presence," this kind of correlation, is not exotic. It's the typical goal of these whole-take surveillance systems, so I would expect the attacks possible with it to be in use.
In London I think you can turn in your Oyster card and get a refund in cash, which you can then use to get a new Oyster card a couple hours later with a different serial number, but of course nobody does that so it might be like wearing a kick-me sign to attempt evasion that way. I don't know.
This is exactly why you have TWO cards. One that you use only occasionally that is traceable and used only for emergencies, and one that you use mostly, which you top up with loads of cash (and cash only), and keep frelling topped up. If you're really paranoid, you cycle the cash-only one every month or two for a new one, and don't frelling worry about the last dollar-and-a-half when you ditch it.
Basic engineering: make allowances for cockups.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Why did she hold onto one single card for so long and keep topping it up?
You'd think somebody who was truly paranoid would have multiple cards, and routinely discard older cards and acquire new cards through unorthodox means. For example, if you hang out at the airport outside the "tap off" exit from the train, you can find a lot of tourists who are flying out and just want to discard their old transit card. Or put just enough to "tap on" (there's usually a minimum balance to enter the train station) on your old cards, and then find homeless people who have a near-zero-value card and trade with them-- they get into the station, you get a new anonymous card with some random travel history on it.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
Sure they do -- if they're in Boston :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Yeah, no. In Australia (even if you have registered your card, bought a monthly card that only needs to tap on for statistics purposes, and have a clear pattern of travelling from Stop A to Stop B and vice versa every day) what happens if you forget to tap on at the start, or lose your card on the journey, is they fine you $200-238.
To stress that, this is even when you've already paid but just forgot to tap on.
Arseholes.
A little known loophole: Your Opal card can go into negative balance. So long as you have enough balance to tap on, you can always tap-off. Tap on with $2.50 credit, tap off for $17.76, throw the card away and get another one. Simples! (You have been living off the grid for 2 years but you didn't know this? Hmm...)
Buy your transport card. Pay cash. Top up with cash (preferably in a new location each time). Never register it. Never link it to your credit or debit card. Live off the grid. Stay away from The Man.
Ya, because acting like that isn't suspicious. "The Man" knows someone is paying for that unregistered, un-linked card w/cash, at different locations. They know the card number, they know where and when it was reloaded and used. They have CCTV cameras. They have a picture of you from somewhere you used it and, if you have any official ID -- driver license, passport, etc... -- they can match them up. They know who you are, what you're doing and where you're doing it. They have devices to identify the mobile phone(s) you're carrying and can track them if they want to.
Either they've been tracking you all this time or determined that you're an idiot and have been ignoring you all this time.
Why do you think businesses and governments encourage, and make it easy to use, electronic payment systems over cash? Identification and tracking.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
This is a serious question. Whenever a US data privacy debate pops up online, Australians seem to weigh in with Europeans in calling privacy a paranoid American concern. When the government told them to turn in their guns, they did so in concern for the greater good. Why not agree to have their movements tracked and their telephony metadata archived? It's for the greater good too, isn't it?
They called me the nameless one, the ghost who commutes, the silent passenger who refused to get an Opal transport card.
I doubt "they" called you any of those things -- especially since you actually *had* an Opal transport card (that you simply paid for w/cash).
I'm going to call you "pretentious".
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
The original card's entire history was tied to a real person with one single card transaction. That's the big loss.
No, I was talking about "losing" the cash card, then using whatever mechanism they have, so people who dropped their card on the train can still get out.
Depends on how criminal the State is.
At some point to be law abiding means abetting crimes, even murder, and/or being suicidal.
At some point many States want more than you earn, stealing your savings.
Some slaves, with enough goodwill, courage and intelligence, successfully escape.
Card credit expires in 30 days from memory
Those who can, do. Those who cannot, sue.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's $200 AUD. That's like $1.50 US.
In this case it's simple.
The card likely has a unique ID, otherwise the system falls apart. This ID is flagged as having no credit card attached, which is a curiosity.
The card is used in cities A(delaide), S(ydney) and C(anberra). Cross-reference ATM withdrawals on cards NOT attached to an Opal card in those cities within, say, two hours of the Opal card being used.
Bam, after four or five withdrawals the Man has narrowed the list down to very few suspects.
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I am currently undergoing radiation treatment at the cancer center here and I have nothing but good things to say about them. They are an excellent facility, especially for a city of our size (85,000).
Bellingham is excellent for outdoor activity. I live close to downtown, but I can bicycle for less that 1/2 hour and be in open countryside.
I know the job market sucks, but for a retiree like myself, I find very little fault with this town.
Mark Allyn
Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
Couldn't she have just bought a NEW card list a tourist would and then ditch it? At best, the "man" could determine she visited the airport once in her life. She could have also called a cab, had them take her to an ATM, and then paid cash. Or, she could have walked. Or, she could have called a friend/family.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs