reader Posted February 6, 2019 Posted February 6, 2019 From Khaosod English (6 Feb.) Papers Please! BTS Cash Card Users Must Disclose Personal Info BANGKOK — Starting in nine days, commuters who pay their skytrain fares with top-up cards must give up their ID card numbers, email addresses and phone numbers to the system’s operator. Citing a clause in 20-year-old anti-money legislation, the BTS said its so-called Rabbit Cards could be used for illicit financial activities and therefore must be registered. The explanation didn’t fly on social media, where many suspected ulterior motives. “Starting this Feb. 15, when topping up cash or trips at BTS ticket offices and the Rabbit service center at BTS Siam station, staff will ask for your ID card for registration and verification,” the operator announced online earlier this week. The statement said phone numbers and email address must also be provided. Foreigners must use their passports for registration. After Feb. 15, topping up without registration will not be possible. The BTS said the Rabbit Cards, which can also be used for purchases at a number of shops and restaurants, could be used for money laundering. But netizens questioned how that could be feasible as the cards are capped at 4,000 baht. Other systems are also citing the law to make similar demands, but they seem to be unrestricted debit cards that can be used to purchase anything. Users of TrueMoney Wallet, an online cash platform provided by telecom giant True, must also register their personal information by Feb. 28. One transparency activist noted it was strange that the BTS was pushing for mass registration as the interim parliament is considering an online privacy bill that could be enacted any time soon. “This is a pessimistic interpretation, but my life experience taught me not to be optimistic about these kind of issues,” Arthit Suriyawongkul wrote online. “The anti-money laundering act has existed for a long time, but they have never forced any registration prior to this.” The privacy bill – Thailand’s first such law – will ban any use or transaction of personal information without users’ consent, but will also allow information collected prior to the bill’s enactment to be used “according to the original purposes.” One comment on Blognone, a tech news site, warned that the personal information of BTS users is at risk under the new policy. “If someday there’s a data breach of all names and surnames tied to all travel records, I wish you all good luck,” user Lew wrote. “If [Rabbit Cards] can be used for money laundering, the BTS should issue regular top-up cards that can only be used for the BTS, which do not require any verification, just like food court cash cards,” another user Jonathan_Job wrote. The exposure of private data is not uncommon in Thailand, where activists say there is little protection for users. In 2017, the police inadvertabtly made information of 790,000 residents visited by police patrols public on their website. The information included names, full addresses, phone numbers and what they told visiting police officers. A year later, True Corp. exposed scans of its customers national ID cards, passports and driver’s licenses. The firm later blamed the unsecured storage on “hacks.” The BTS Skytrain is owned by City Hall which grants a management concession to the Bangkok Mass Transit System Co. Ltd.. http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/bangkok/2019/02/06/papers-please-bts-cash-card-users-must-disclose-personal-info/ Quote
Guest Posted February 6, 2019 Posted February 6, 2019 Unbelievable! Would never give them any information. Why don't they just make a card good only for transit. Those cards are nothing but good for them . Frequently only a % of money used and then maybe months before rest is used if ever. There I go thinking like a Tourist again, who would expect they would like to make it easy for their visitors. Silly me! Quote
paulsf Posted February 6, 2019 Posted February 6, 2019 It’s definitely a pain and going to be time consuming. But it’s not much different than now needing to give passport info for SIM card, or the immigration landing card asks for phone number and email addresses. They’re going to keep track of us one way or an other. DivineMadman and fedssocr 2 Quote
DivineMadman Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 6 hours ago, Scooby said: Unbelievable! Would never give them any information. Why don't they just make a card good only for transit. Those cards are nothing but good for them . Frequently only a % of money used and then maybe months before rest is used if ever. There I go thinking like a Tourist again, who would expect they would like to make it easy for their visitors. Silly me! Doesn't seem like a big deal to me, but as I've mentioned in another thread, I've linked Line Pay with Rabbit Card, which required it's own registration. Makes Rabbit Card that much easier to use (and three free rides(!)). If you don't already have a Rabbit Card you can get cute cards with a Line character on them now. I think most Rabbit Card users probably aren't tourists. It's simple a fact that Rabbit Card is NOT merely a transit card. That metaphoric train has left the station and not coming back. There are a lot of places that take Rabbit Card - coffee shops, cinemas, fast food joints, some food courts, gourmet market, Family Mart, etc.. It even has its own rewards program. It seems a bit bizarre to suggest that they take away that functionality just because some tourists don't want to register to use it. Mangoom Card -- if it ever materializes -- is expected to be a transit-only stored value card (I believe). Until then, there just isn't one. fedssocr 1 Quote
vinapu Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 2 hours ago, DivineMadman said: Doesn't seem like a big deal to me, as long as there's choice of not using it, fine , no big deal and whoever doesn't want to register is free to use other payment means including ones bearing king's portrait. But when other options will be removed then such a card becomes tool for mass surveillance if somebody wants to use that way. Hitler , Stalin and senator McCarthy must be green with envy watching today's possibilities from down there DivineMadman 1 Quote
fedssocr Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 look at all of the privacy we all give away for free every day for the sake of convenience. Google knows more about me than I do. I like the convenience of the Rabbit card. I am not likely to balk at linking it to my passport for my relatively infrequent visits. Quote
PeterRS Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 The Rabbit card has evolved in much the same way as the Octopus card in Hong Kong and the Oyster card in London. The Octopus card is actually more than 20 years old. I also like the Rabbit card - the more so when I see the increasingly long queues of people for single ride tickets at certain stations. I cannot believe anyone living and using the BTS regularly in Bangkok is prepared to do that every time he takes a BTS ride. Quote
DivineMadman Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 I recently read a report about an incident in China where a "bad guy" was caught in a busy stadium (I believe) by facial recognition cameras & software. It's some scary stuff. And at the same time we are embracing the technology. I think (and as always am probably wrong here) that the proposals to speed things up in U.S. airports involve among other things use of facial recognition tech. I even read one report that the recent Facebook 10-year challenge was ginned up by Facebook to improve its own facial recognition software. True? I don't know. But could well be. If I'm ever doing anything suspicious I am sure to wear a Paulsf mask if there are cameras nearby. ggobkk and floridarob 2 Quote
spoon Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 1 hour ago, DivineMadman said: If I'm ever doing anything suspicious I am sure to wear a Paulsf mask if there are cameras nearby. Where can i get this mask? Might need one as well lol DivineMadman 1 Quote
PeterRS Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 2 hours ago, DivineMadman said: I recently read a report about an incident in China where a "bad guy" was caught in a busy stadium (I believe) by facial recognition cameras & software. It's some scary stuff. And at the same time we are embracing the technology. The UK adopted facial recognition at least 2 years ago. It is also one of the countries with the most surveillance cameras of any country per head of population. 1.85 million CCTV cameras are in place - thats 1 for every 32 citizens! Quote
vinapu Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 6 hours ago, spoon said: Where can i get this mask? Might need one as well lol soi twilight gift shop Quote
vinapu Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 5 hours ago, PeterRS said: The UK adopted facial recognition at least 2 years ago. It is also one of the countries with the most surveillance cameras of any country per head of population. 1.85 million CCTV cameras are in place - thats 1 for every 32 citizens! and still whole nation managed to escape from EU Quote
Guest Posted February 7, 2019 Posted February 7, 2019 Possibly Thailand could learn from Singapore which has a wide ranging system that makes much more sense for residents as well as and especially tourists. https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/public-transport/mrt-and-lrt-trains/train-fares-and-travel-cards.html Quote
ggobkk Posted February 10, 2019 Posted February 10, 2019 On 2/7/2019 at 4:28 AM, vinapu said: soi twilight gift shop Mask available at Maxi's location when in stock Quote
reader Posted February 12, 2019 Author Posted February 12, 2019 On 2/6/2019 at 3:00 PM, paulsf said: They’re going to keep track of us one way or an other. And judging by this disclosure from MIT, we're making it easy for them. From CNBC (12 Feb.) More than 26 million people shared their DNA with ancestry firms, allowing researchers to trace relationships between virtually all Americans: MIT More than 26 million people have taken a consumer DNA test so far. The MIT Technology Review predicts that number will rise to 100 million in 24 months. Last year's sales alone equaled that of 2012 through 2017 combined. More than 26 million people — more people than in all of Australia — have shared their DNA with one of the four leading ancestry and health databases, allowing researchers to extrapolate data on virtually all Americans and raising some serious privacy concerns, according to the MIT Technology Review. Consumers purchased the same number of at-home DNA tests in 2018 as in all previous years since 2012 combined, according to the publication. If the trend continues, the companies could house the genetic information of over 100 million people — about a third of the U.S. population — within two years. "For consumers, the tests — which cost as little as $59 — offer entertainment, clues to ancestry, and a chance of discovering family secrets, such as siblings you didn't know about," according to MIT Technology Review. "But the consequences for privacy go well beyond that. As these databases grow, they have made it possible to trace the relationships between nearly all Americans, including those who never purchased a test." Ancestry and 23andMe are the two main players in the genetic and ancestry testing business, with Ancestry collecting 14 million DNA samples as of Jan. 1 and 23andMe collecting 9 million samples. The other companies reported a combined total of 3.5 million samples collected. "We have noticed an increasing number of people becoming interested in genetic testing," said Jon Ward, vice president of consumer marketing and acquisition at 23andMe. "Consumers are interested in discovering a range of information about themselves, from learning more of their background and where their ancestors came from, to identifying lost relatives or learning more about their health." MIT said the four biggest ancestry companies have previously promised they wouldn't let police search their databases without a warrant. But Family Tree DNA recently changed its policy and allowed the FBI to upload DNA samples from crime scenes, according to the MIT publication. "The unilateral change in policy — which users weren't alerted to — is troubling because it means that our DNA, just like our posts on social media or our location data, is at the mercy of user agreements none of us have any control over or even bother to read," the MIT publication said. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/12/privacy-concerns-rise-as-26-million-share-dna-with-ancestry-firms.html Edit Quote
fedssocr Posted February 18, 2019 Posted February 18, 2019 fwiw, when I added value to my old rabbit card yesterday I was not asked for my passport. It could be that the line was so long that the cashier didn't want to deal with it anddy 1 Quote
anddy Posted February 18, 2019 Posted February 18, 2019 that's interesting and funny and typical lol. Read some other reports elsewhere about problems with the new systems leading to long delays - no surprise at all. On the other extreme, a friend topped up on the 14th and asked about the new rule, the cashier didn't have a clue what he was talking about LOL. Just in case and to avoid any inconveniences in the near future I topped up 2k a couple of days before the 15th. As I hardly ever ride the BTS that will last me forever (almost) Quote
Jasper Posted March 4, 2019 Posted March 4, 2019 I topped up my rabbit card today and nothing has been asked to show. lol Quote
anddy Posted March 5, 2019 Posted March 5, 2019 14 hours ago, Jasper said: I topped up my rabbit card today and nothing has been asked to show. lol hahahaha that's great and almost as expected - they come up with a rule and then nobody cares to implement/enforce it! Thanks for letting us know vinapu 1 Quote
dozzie Posted March 5, 2019 Posted March 5, 2019 was asked to show ID at one station but not another... held up the queue and was quite embarrassing... Quote
anddy Posted March 5, 2019 Posted March 5, 2019 20 minutes ago, dozzie said: was asked to show ID at one station but not another.. another classic TiT LOL Quote
