On Saturday, March 15, 2003, Adam said... AS> On Sat, Mar 15, 2003 at 08:47:15PM +0000, Michael Shields wrote: AS> | The last time I was in New York, you could buy a Metrocard for cash. AS> | As far as I know, there are no plans to change this.
AS> Sure. But I said linkable, not traceable. AS> Adam What's to link? All that can be linked is that a metrocard was bought in one place, be it a subway station, deli or whatever, and then used somewhere else, the subway or bus. Hundreds of metrocards are bought at every station every day, used once, and tossed in the trash. (Actually, most of them get tossed on the train tracks.) All that can be linked is that one anonymous person, along with dozens of others, bought a metrocard and got on the subway a few minutes later, and then vanished into the crush. Of course, they may decide to issue each 'citizen' their own metrocard, permanent, for 'security reasons'. Or maybe they'll just use our national ID card as our metrocard/drivers license/ez-pass. But as it is now, if the card is used only once, there is no other information that can be used to link that card to anyplace or anyone else. There was one guy a few months ago who was convicted of a rape or murder or something, mostly because of evidence from his metrocard. That was only possible because it was a weekly unlimited metrocard and he still had it in his wallet when he got picked up. -- stuart I want to suggest that citizens of free societies do not preserve their freedom by pussyfooting around their fellow citizens' opinions, even their most cherished beliefs. Salman Rushdie
