 From the TfL web site:
"A faster, easier 7 Day Travelcard on Oyster
From 25 September, 7 Day Travelcards will only be available on Transport for London's Oyster smartcard, meaning customers currently using paper tickets can benefit from faster and easier journeys."
First question - easier and faster than putting a ticket in the same machine? Having worked in London for a couple of years, I can confidently say that this is absolute rubbish; using an Oyster card is just as slow as the old fashioned paper ticket. So the question is - what benefit does moving 7 day travel cards to Oyster provide to anyone if not the commuter?
Well the commuter has two choices. Firstly, you can pick up your new 7 day Oyster card and register your details. Alternatively, you can pick up your new 7 day Oyster card and not register your details. So far so good - bit of a no-brainer. I picked up my non-registered card a couple of weeks ago. It comes complete with a tube map, some basic Oyster information, and no privacy statement. Yep, absolutely no mention of what`s stored on the card, what`s not, and what`s done with any of this information that may or not exist.
So TfL is doing away with single day tickets? Are they hell. Who`s going to pay 3 quid deposit on a ticket costing £1.80? So the same equipment will be in stations and used by a fraction of travellers. Good use of investment, and all in the name of easier journeys. Or data collection as we`re all forced to give away just that little bit more privacy.
The Oyster card works by way of contactless chip; wave it over the reader and it gets read. The tinfoil hat brigade of course is up in arms as there`s nothing to stop somebody with a boosted receiver pointing at these cards from a distance and reading whatever is on them. As soon as they`re tied to a name and address, what`s to stop those send to protect us (........) from hiding receivers in bus seats, telephone boxes, and god knows what in order to track movements? It might seem far-fetched, but let`s not let the possibility take hold. Those who say they have nothing to hide may as well leave their doors open, do away with envelopes for mail, and hook their phones up to loud speakers. What do I have to hide? Going about my boring life, that`s what. It`s nobody`s business. For once I fully agree with the tinfoil folks.
Think about it for a second. How many people are now being forced to link up to the TfL database who wouldn`t have previously? A lot of people. Have a look at the Transport for London privacy policy. Blah blah marketing blah blah. Oh look! Disclose data for the purposes of crime prevention and detection. Yes folks, your journey from Camden Town to Turnham Green will be disclosed to the police just in case they might want somebody to arrest (or shoot in the head). God help you if you`re in the wrong place at the wrong time and your details are picked up. This is a country where innocent commuters on buses have their photos plastered across newspapers because they happened to be on a bus maybe at the time an incident took place. Nothing to hide.
Here`s my solution. Pay the £3 deposit for a non-registered card. Should you need to make refund claims (and let`s face it, I can`t be the only one claiming a minimum of 4 journeys a week) put in your form online, and hand back your card at the end of your 7 days. Get your 3 quid refund, and then ask for another card. Yes, it`s going to be a pain in the arse, but what else is there? I`m aiming for 10 cards by Christmas. Firstly it`ll help ensure commuters have some form of privacy, and secondly it should skew the data collected.
Ask yourself why no privacy information was provided with the card.
I`ll keep you posted. I`ll be exchanging my card on Monday. |
