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Privacy Law Resources |
Law enforcement agencies, including the police, will also be able to gain access to smart card records, granting them a detailed insight into the private lives of card-holders. Law enforcement agencies would be very interested in being able to re-create the movements of individuals on public and private transport, and to track the time and place of their transactions.
This use of smart cards as a surveillance tool will be further enhanced by the availability of a number of "on line" smart card transactions. An individual's purchases and movements could be tracked as they take place. For example, several smart card promoters intend to use smart cards in taxis. A number of taxis in Australia already have tracking systems in place which can pin-point the location of the taxi to a few metres, and the path of the taxi can be followed on a street grid at a central location. The system utilises Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology which is becoming cheaper and more available.
A combination of an on-line smart card transaction and the GPS system in taxis will enable the police to track individuals in real time with incredible accuracy. In the future, this system may be available for other forms of transport, including buses.
"If an electronic purse card is widely used and it is known that a card belongs to an individual, the central clearing system could build a comprehensive picture of the buying habits and, more disturbing, the movements of that person. This will particularly be the case if the card is accepted for toll payment and public transport." 14
Once again, the smart card promoters and other scheme participants will be unable to prevent this use of their systems. In the course of their investigations, law enforcement agencies already obtain access to transaction records, telephone records and photo and video records from security cameras.