[LINK] Contract signed for national health ID system

[Craig Sanders]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2008 at 11:24:10AM +1100, Geoffrey Ramadan wrote:
> The new Victorian ticketing system is based on a MIFARE payment technology.
>
> It will use both paper based tickets and reloadable cards.
>
> It is an anonymous electronic payment system. There is no user 
> identification and therefore nothing to link the card to the purchaser.
>
> However, I do understand you can optionally register the "Card ID" number, 
> so in the case you loose your card, instead of loosing your "cash", you can 
> transfer to the funds to a new card.

i bet that it will end up being the other way around - registration is
by default and you can, in theory, after a lot of bureacratic stuffing
around and delays and hassle, get an anonymous card if you really
insist.

and the majority of the public will just accept it without thinking
about it, the same way that they enthusiastically accept other stealth
id cards like flybuys.  give, or just promise, some trivial benefit and
they'll leap at the chance.


all that misses the central point of my post, though - even if it were
perfect, and does everything it's supposed to, and has no bugs, and
wassn't a stealth ID card, there's STILL no way it can possibly be worth
anything like half a billion dollars. that is just absurd.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

"The universe is not hostile, nor yet is
 it friendly. It is simply indifferent."
    [John H. Holmes, A Sensible Man's View of Religion, 1933]