A new price-scheme for public transport in London puts a high price on privacy. Bus and tube tickets in central London will rise up to 25% in price from January 2004. But passengers using the Oyster smartcard will be able to travel at 2003 prices. This plastic card, fitted with a contact-less microchip (RFID), was introduced earlier this summer for annual and monthly ticket holders and requires registration of name, address and photocard number. According to the official website, one of the scheme's advantages is that it will 'provide information that will help London to manage its transport system better. For instance, we will be able to identify where people, and how many, are transferring from bus to bus or from bus to Tube.'
For almost the same plans to register all travel-movements, the Helsinki public transport company YTC was presented with a Big Brother Award in June. In Finland anonymous cards were only available at a much higher price. Only after a long struggle with the the Finnish data protection agency YTV finally changed their mind and concluded that the system could also work without any identification of the passengers.
Tube fares to rise (19.08.2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3163103.stm
Oystercard (introduced 30.06.2003)
http://www.oystercard.com
YTV English web page
http://www.ytv.fi/matkakortti/english/index.html