Some of this is already in place. If you don't buy your Metrocard with cash, they have records of who you are. It's basically an ATM that takes ATM cards, credit cards (and some take cash also.) If you pay the machine by cash, you can be sure your face is linked to your Metrocard - since it's an ATM, they have to record who uses it.
If you've signed up for the Mail & Ride thing for the LIRR, they've got your metrocard linked already. Not sure about the booths, wouldn't surprise me though. You can still buy preset cards from newsstands - YMMV. Also, don't forget that each metrocard has it's own serial number. If you're not just a casual user, they can figure out around where you live because you use it twice. Once from home, once from work. Further, if you take them up on their offer to refresh the amount there - which they try to get you to do by making it so you always have a few extra cents left over on the card, there's another chance you might just use a credit card, etc... If there are cameras near the turnstyles, it's easy to spot who swiped which card and where they go based on timestamps. Of course face->card links aren't card->identity links, but if you're wanted, they're more than good enough. ----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos--------------------------- + ^ + :NSA got $20Bil/year |Passwords are like underwear. You don't /|\ \|/ :and didn't stop 9-11|share them, you don't hang them on your/\|/\ <--*-->:Instead of rewarding|monitor, or under your keyboard, you \/|\/ /|\ :their failures, we |don't email them, or put them on a web \|/ + v + :should get refunds! |site, and you must change them very often. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.sunder.net ------------ On Sat, 15 Mar 2003, stuart wrote: > 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.
