Movement Tracking Systems and Smartcards

["Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>]

At 6:49 PM -0500 11/8/96, jbugden@smtplink.alis.ca wrote:
>Marshall Clow <mclow@owl.csusm.edu> wrote:
>>James wrote:
>>>Of course, not having a card may subject you to greater scrutiny at check-in
>>>time due to the reduced tracking ability.
>>>
>>I think that you have this backwards. There will be less tracking ability for
>>people flying w/o tickets.
>
>Less tracking for people w/o tickets, but more scrutiny for people w/o smart
>cards.
>
>I can easily see the working assumption that smart carded people have
>_already_
>passed the security check, while those who pay cash would be under greater
>scrutiny.

This is a very relevant, on-topic issue (I've changed the thread name from
"Smart Bombs," as I didn't see the reason for it).

One of the things Chaum warned about was not this particular example, but
the dangers of having computerized checkpoints for so many things. And a
pre-authorized smartcard for getting on planes is certainly a computerized
checkpoint.

(Want to be the information is eventually fed into government computers,
for tracking movements? It's not paranoid to think they want to track _me_,
for example; rather, it's natural for _all_ airline reservation and
boarding list records to be forwarded for crunching and for correlation
analysis. It's what I would do if I ran the intelligence agencies and was
tasked with the job of having such correlation information available for
helping to solve crimes. I expect the Big Three of credit-reporting
agencies are of course also in the loop....those movies where someone is
located because they foolishly used an ATM machine to get some cash or used
their credit card are not just fiction.)

A system wherein people flash pre-approved cards (with some biometric
elements, it seems must be necessary) could easily lead to even wider use.
Toll roads are an obvious example, long-considered by Chaum and other
privacy workers.

This could be the modern equivalent of travel documents in the U.S. While I
cannot see a situation in which citizen-units are ever told they may not
travel without authorization, I can quite easily see the situation emerging
in which airlines, bus companies, car rental agencies, and even hotels and
gas stations are expected to "run your card through." This is already the
case with many hotels and nearly all car rental agencies demanding credit
cards (as we have discussed here recently), and expect this use to grow.

This de facto produces a movement tracking system. Obviously.

Expect more scrutiny, perhaps even time-consuming and hassling scrutiny,
for those who try to pay in cash and for those who are reluctant to run
their cards through the system.

--Tim May



"The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM
that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology."
[NYT, 1996-10-02]
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
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