'Bio-hacker' embeds public transport ticket under his skin Killjoys at the public transport authority in the Australian State of New South Wales are warning users of stored-value-for-public-transport "Opal Card" that turning them into implants invalidates the card. One of the most persistently stupid ideas in the world of “bio-hacking”, dropping a chip under the skin for convenience, …
That is because the transport offices are for the most part a perversion of the law. Rather than targeting the guilty their job is to force the commuter to continually prove their innocence. Law the Australian way. Travel to Japan and see how a mature nation handles this problem.
From the ABC article:
"He is able to use the Opal just like other users, including topping the card up on his smartphone."
Well, yeah, because the smartphone app just updates his account on the Opal servers via his 4G connection - it's not making an NFC connection with the chip.
I can understand his reasoning. No doubt he tired of losing his card due to the daily kickings he's no doubt on the receiving end of.
I fear for the day he is rudely awakened from his Neal Stephenson-esque cyberpunk existence, when he gets on a rickety STA bus, has to stand because the only free seats are wet due to a leaking roof/windows, and can't tap on because the Opal system is down, indicated by a hi-tech plastic Coles bag placed over the reader.
Hacking is an emotive term. He has made no attempt to operate the card outside of his own individual account or in ways that are foreign to the card readers nor is he attempting to evade the fare. He has merely changed the container of the active part of the card. There may be a lot of value in the market for this operation or others that shift the active part of the opal card into more convenient, containers like phones, key rings, watches and bracelets - but we don't do that here. Agile and innovative is lost behind authoritarian and inflexible. Yes, he is outside the terms of the user agreement but how many of us had a say in the drafting of that agreement or are we simply forced to acknowledge it as part of using a public utility that we all own and paid for. It took Uber to force the governments hand on taxi regulation. This will be similarly painful until it becomes such a political embarrassment that the ministers will look away from their donors long enough to meet their obligations to the general public and then we will move forward another inch.
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Francis, I think the indifference is because your concept is a work of speculative friction. But don't despair, with modern social media, you could probably slide it into the minds of the GreatUnwashed ... but don't go too far and make it into a religion! The last thing the world needs today is yet another example of bad Zions Friction.
IIRC the ticket inspectors (been to Sydney, bought an Opal card, used it loads) check that your card is valid by looking at it.
There are some special cards including those for pensioners which give cheaper travel. You have to have a valid gold card to use one though.
Perhaps they don't carry scanners to ID the chip?
Perhaps the physical card has anti-fraud measures built in?
Perhaps I'm just confusing it with the pre-Opal system?
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