The Doc reads with interest the plans to withdraw cash(coins) from circulation in the near future, it is to be replaced with a card which allows you to pay for items under £10 e.g. cup of coffee and a newspaper, this technology will also be incorporated in to mobile phones allowing you to "tap and pay" simply tapping you phone on to a terminal in that particular outlet without having to use a pin number (transactions over £10 will require a pin )
I am sure charities that rely on our loose change put in to there boxes in shops etc, will be watching with fear at the prospect, as will our big issue vendors
I am sure charities that rely on our loose change put in to there boxes in shops etc, will be watching with fear at the prospect, as will our big issue vendors
Heading to town soon Doc to see if the HBOS machine still works. They say Gordon Brown is busy printing more money for them. Might as well let them have their bonuses, some folk are getting round to thinking that our dosh could become as worthless as the Zimbabwee currency before long.
ReplyDeleteUnknown territory indeed. £200 for that copy of the Big Issue?
does that also mean that the term "any loose change sir/madam"
ReplyDeletewill no longer be heard in the big cities and people on the streets will need to carry a card reader around with them
The penny in your pocket is in some ways your last chance to make purchases and even travel anonymously. The move towards a cashless society goes very much hand in hand with advances in technology and surveillance; our rights to exist freely are being eroded at a rate of zeros and noughts. Passports, credit and bank cards are all soon to contain RFID chips, “Citizens” and “Customers” do not even have to be notified about their inclusion because the cards remain the property of the banks just as the passport remains the property of the government and they can be withdrawn at any time. Have you received a new card from your bank recently?. Despite expiry dates being years away, the cost of issuing new cards to all customers wouldn’t even be considered if they didn’t stand to gain somehow. Tescos are about to implement this technology in a trial in some stores. So called “smart shelves” will allow you to walk in and pick up your goods and walk right out of the store, the payment will be deducted automatically, they can even monitor what you pick up but don’t buy thus giving them even more insight into the choices we make as consumers. So it’s goodbye to check it operators, cash counters door men, ticket collectors and the like, the card you carry in your pocket everywhere you go will simply admit you because you pre paid or can pay. Get on a train or a bus and when you get off your journey has been paid for, no more getting through to Forres or Inverness for free because the ticket collector never got to your carriage on time. Sounds like a lot more of life’s little hassles will soon be gotten rid of, we won’t have to interact with strangers ever again. Instead of employing robots we are becoming them, many people worry that this technology is already in the wrong hands but look back in history even a generation and the possible misuses are astounding. Switching off your access to transport, communication and money will allow control of individuals and society on scale barely imaginable.
ReplyDeleteIf this comes off what would happen to the (possibly millions) who are in the country illegally? In the same vein I've often thought that ID cards are only any use to the authorities if they ask people for them. There wouldn't be enough prison cells to lock up everyone without a proper 'ticket' but would they just starve anyway if they had no card with enough credit left to get them a bag of chips?
ReplyDeleteThe BBC reports on the demise of cheques (Remember those?), so not just small change going
ReplyDeletehttp://tr.im/gh1z
"Those aged in their 20s don't know what a chequebook is, and those in their 30s don't know where their chequebook is," said Sandra Quinn of Apacs.
And this article tells what information the London Transport Oyster Card already holds about folk
http://tr.im/gh2c
and then there are mobile phones, police can already track your phone to within a few feet
Your computer has a unique MAC address which is traceable and your ISP has to keep copies of all emails you send
We have more CCTV cameras per head of population than any other country
And might I just say hello to whoever is watching me now!
1984 is looming fast! And what about those do not have mobile phones? OK - I know there are not many who don't. My elderly mother still likes to do her 'pay out' every week, and leave out the right amount of money for the Sunday papers and milk.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you have to move with the times, like not having a pay packet but getting your money paid directly into the bank.
Technology is moving so fast it is leaving a lot of us behind - especially the older generation, trying to explain to them how you can 'speak' to someone a computer completely baffles them.