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Comment by digitalengineer | Hacker News Reader

Next up is a peronal rifd card for ALL forms of public transport, eg the bus, metro, train... A card that can be loaded with dollars using your credit/debit card only. Think it won't happen? It already did in the Netherlands. They're trying to add Black boxes to cars here as well. Oh, did I mention the other privacy-nightmares? How about a mandated centralized database for health-related issues? Run by the insurance companies. We have licenceplate scanning CCTV camera's at all major roads as well as all borders.

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Not that I like the surveillance state anywhere, but I'm a lot less concerned about "advances" like these in societies where democracy is already established than countries were authoritarian regimes are still in charge.

EDIT : Why is my comment being down-voted ?? what part of "Not that I like the surveillance state anywhere" don't you understand. It's a FACT, the consequences of Big brother are magnitudes of order more terrifying for societies that still don't have institutions to protect them.

Today's democratic state can be tomorrow's authoritarian regime, and "advances" like these help grease the wheels.

I can see your point but these "advances" are immediately sold to authoritarian regimes by those democracies. Most of the time before they are even used in the democratic country.

I agree. Often the benefits of these kind of things outweigh the risks of abuse. Law-abiding citizens rarely have what to fear from normal "surveillance".

I agree. Often the benefits of these kind of things outweigh the risks of abuse. Law-abiding citizens rarely have what to fear from normal "surveillance".

Do you live in the US? If so, you're not almost certainly not a "law-abiding citizen." The only question is, which laws count?

and which laws will be enforced, or ignored by the reigning excecutive

That is not what I said. I think these developments are toxic in the long term however well-intentioned they are when they're first introduced.

I was pointing out their implications are even worse for countries without a tradition of freedom because they'll allow for an even tighter control of information & around the clock surveillance thus enabling the security apparatuses of those regimes to nip in the bud any revolutionary movement.

If you care, just load up your card with money and trade with someone else. Repeat until the tinfoil hat sense stops tingling.

Or just jump over the turnstiles.

Your personal RFID card has your picture on it, along with other information. Swapping it with someone else is not really an option, because at that point if the train personnel comes by you are technically without a valid ticket and will be given a ticket.

There is some fight back to the centralised database, and the system they are proposing to use may not even be allowed to be used due to the parent company being a US based company, and the US having the Patriot Act which would allow the US to require the US parent company to request data on Dutch citizens through the patriot act which would break EU privacy and personal data storage rules.

In my city, in Argentina there's already an rfid card that people uses for the bus, train and trolley. You can load it using cash though. There are also an increasing number of cameras in every corner as well, and a week ago the president herself said on tv that she wanted to put up cameras everywhere.

Read this, should be of interest to you:

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

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