[LINK] myki - a tracking device (was Re: more myki pain)

Jan Whitaker jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Mon Apr 12 09:19:09 AEST 2010


At 11:24 PM 11/04/2010, andrew clarke wrote:
>My feeling is that in morning peak, touching-off at stations in the
>city is going to be a complete disaster because of the long queues it
>will create, and you'll end up with scores of people gettimg
>impatient, not touching-off then jumping the barriers, and the
>government will soon abandon the idea.

I don't travel during peak very often, but there are queues even in 
off-peak with the current card system at some stations to get out 
through the barriers. I'd say even without a queue, it takes about 3 
seconds per read with the paper card.

BTW, these are only at city stations and major transfer stations, 
even as far as Dandenong. But us at the outer fringes just walk in 
and out without barriers at all.

Others wrote:
> > Of course, their card could also be misplaced (or stolen) and used
> > by someone else...
>
>i wonder how hard it would be to clone myki cards? or spam/spoof/dos
>attack the terminals?

Since they aren't tagged to an individual (at least I don't think so? 
Can you loan your card to someone else legally?), then "I dropped it 
in the station toilet" may be a good defence.

As for cloning etc., I believe I read something a month or so ago 
that they are already being cloned, which may be why they need the 
real-time access to the central database. I've not used one of these 
cards and haven't seen any inspectors on trains ask for tickets since 
they were introduced. With paper cards, they examine the data stamp. 
But with these ecards, I wonder if they have the ability to find out 
if the trip is valid with their hand-held checkers if the base comms 
is down? And if someone uses a paper card in a reader now, there is a 
series of beeps and also a text message on the reader that says if a 
card is valid or not. I wonder if these card scanners that the 
passengers use for touch on give an audible signal.

BTW, the spruiker hired to push this thing when it was released into 
the wild (on the trains), Jean Kerr Walsh, has disappeared from view. 
Touch on, Touch off, has somehow lost its luster. With this idea of 
using it as a tracking device, I wonder if the new phrase should be: 
Touching Me, Touching You. ;-)

Jan


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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