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If I were a more paranoid person, the fact that I'm currently carting around two RFID smart cards every workday would probably bother me a lot more than it does.
The first of these is a keycard, issued to me by my current temporary employer, a research company in Cambridge. Its designed, near as I can tell, to give the building an illusion of security while at the same time being maximally convenient. So I have to wave it at a sensor before I can push the button on the elevator to get to my floor... or any of the other floors operated by the company, as the card doesn't discriminate. And then once I get off the elevator I have to wave it at another sensor to open the glass doors and get to my cubicle... unless I cleverly loiter in or around the bathrooms, which are on the unsecured side of the door, and just slip through with another group, because people hold the doors open all the time.
Honestly the very idea that these things are secure is laughable. They don't have photo IDs on them or anything. They activate the sensor for a good fifteen to twenty seconds after you swipe them, rather than a more reasonable and shorter interval. And, oh yes, they'll issue me a new (albeit "temporary," lasting only 24 to 48 hours) pass without so much as checking that I work for the company. Honestly, I should know, as on more than one occasion I've forgotten my pass and simply taken the elevator to the (unsecured) reception floor and made my way to business services. They told me to fill out a half-page form that they didn't even look at and handed me a new card. If there's genuine security going on here its happening well beneath the surface where I can't see it.
The second RFID tag (which, incidentally, I tote around in my other pocket for fear that they'll somehow interfere with one another, despite assurances to the contrary) is a welcome addition to my life: a CharlieCard. Boston has just this month gotten rid of their antiquated token system for public transportation. The Boston subway and trolley system, referred to by us locals as simply the T, is laughably outdated (and also laugh-'till-you-cry corrupt). Not only have we been paying with little, apparently easily-counterfeited circular bits of metal well into the twenty-first century, but on some lines (most notably the detestable Green line, the most heavily-used light rail line in the country, on which I used to live) its possible to pay with spare change when boarding the train from the street.
This is less crazy than it sounds; if you get on at a station you generally have to go through the procedure of getting a token, but for the bulk of its westbound spurs the Green line is essentially streetcars, and people step from the painted yellow pavement, through the open door and up onto the train, and basically throw an undifferentiated handful of change into a mechanical box by the conductor (a box that looks like it was installed in 1922, if you're lucky and get one of the newer models.) If you are the only person getting on the train its important that it be correct change, but during rush hour you could substitute five nickels for five quarters and by the time anyone realized the difference it'd be too late to pick you out of the packed crowd.
But no more. After an infuriating transitional period, during which tokens were replaced with magnetic-stripe tickets that stored value (not unlike the Chicago L system used when I was in college, but flimsier in design), the T has now rolled out the CharlieCard system. Rather than having to be fed through a machine that processed your ticket startlingly slowly, now you can just wave a plastic card the same shape and size as a credit card in the vague direction of a sensor, and the gate will let you through. Its convenient and its much faster and generally makes me feel like maybe the T is not the most pathetic subway system in all creation. And a helpful little console by the sensor will even tell you how much money is left on the card. Or, if you have a monthly pass, it will tell you when the end of the month is, which is... useful, I guess. (No, I'm not kidding. I've watched people use monthly pass CharlieCards, watched the screen helpfully light up that their pass is good until 12/31/2006, and wondered what was wrong with the universe.)
Don't get me wrong. I don't mind the keycard and I'm actually wild about the CharlieCard. But I'm basically a walking beacon. If crazy conspiracy movies, the kind Denzel Washington likes to star in these days, are to be believed the government has not one but two signals to hone in on to aim their orbital spy satelites at me.
The first of these is a keycard, issued to me by my current temporary employer, a research company in Cambridge. Its designed, near as I can tell, to give the building an illusion of security while at the same time being maximally convenient. So I have to wave it at a sensor before I can push the button on the elevator to get to my floor... or any of the other floors operated by the company, as the card doesn't discriminate. And then once I get off the elevator I have to wave it at another sensor to open the glass doors and get to my cubicle... unless I cleverly loiter in or around the bathrooms, which are on the unsecured side of the door, and just slip through with another group, because people hold the doors open all the time.
Honestly the very idea that these things are secure is laughable. They don't have photo IDs on them or anything. They activate the sensor for a good fifteen to twenty seconds after you swipe them, rather than a more reasonable and shorter interval. And, oh yes, they'll issue me a new (albeit "temporary," lasting only 24 to 48 hours) pass without so much as checking that I work for the company. Honestly, I should know, as on more than one occasion I've forgotten my pass and simply taken the elevator to the (unsecured) reception floor and made my way to business services. They told me to fill out a half-page form that they didn't even look at and handed me a new card. If there's genuine security going on here its happening well beneath the surface where I can't see it.
The second RFID tag (which, incidentally, I tote around in my other pocket for fear that they'll somehow interfere with one another, despite assurances to the contrary) is a welcome addition to my life: a CharlieCard. Boston has just this month gotten rid of their antiquated token system for public transportation. The Boston subway and trolley system, referred to by us locals as simply the T, is laughably outdated (and also laugh-'till-you-cry corrupt). Not only have we been paying with little, apparently easily-counterfeited circular bits of metal well into the twenty-first century, but on some lines (most notably the detestable Green line, the most heavily-used light rail line in the country, on which I used to live) its possible to pay with spare change when boarding the train from the street.
This is less crazy than it sounds; if you get on at a station you generally have to go through the procedure of getting a token, but for the bulk of its westbound spurs the Green line is essentially streetcars, and people step from the painted yellow pavement, through the open door and up onto the train, and basically throw an undifferentiated handful of change into a mechanical box by the conductor (a box that looks like it was installed in 1922, if you're lucky and get one of the newer models.) If you are the only person getting on the train its important that it be correct change, but during rush hour you could substitute five nickels for five quarters and by the time anyone realized the difference it'd be too late to pick you out of the packed crowd.
But no more. After an infuriating transitional period, during which tokens were replaced with magnetic-stripe tickets that stored value (not unlike the Chicago L system used when I was in college, but flimsier in design), the T has now rolled out the CharlieCard system. Rather than having to be fed through a machine that processed your ticket startlingly slowly, now you can just wave a plastic card the same shape and size as a credit card in the vague direction of a sensor, and the gate will let you through. Its convenient and its much faster and generally makes me feel like maybe the T is not the most pathetic subway system in all creation. And a helpful little console by the sensor will even tell you how much money is left on the card. Or, if you have a monthly pass, it will tell you when the end of the month is, which is... useful, I guess. (No, I'm not kidding. I've watched people use monthly pass CharlieCards, watched the screen helpfully light up that their pass is good until 12/31/2006, and wondered what was wrong with the universe.)
Don't get me wrong. I don't mind the keycard and I'm actually wild about the CharlieCard. But I'm basically a walking beacon. If crazy conspiracy movies, the kind Denzel Washington likes to star in these days, are to be believed the government has not one but two signals to hone in on to aim their orbital spy satelites at me.
