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Claire Reilly writes about her commutes and other travels in Sydney, Australia while trying to avoid the excessive surveillance that arrived with the abolition of paper tickets. Australia passed invasive surveillance laws that also affect travel. It eventually emerged that authorities could search commuter card data tied to individual users, including all movement and payments.
I'm all for escaping the Orwellian nightmare of the modern surveillance state. But when you rage against the machine, you still have to associate with the bulls on parade.
All the top-up machines at train stations, light rail stops and ferry terminals were card-only affairs. One tap on that baby and you were back in the system.
So, if I was busing downtown for a work meeting, I'd have to factor in extra time to get to an ATM, get cash out and then find somewhere to top up my card. Running for the train with friends, I was the one who had to divert three blocks, change jackets, burn off my fingerprints and find a nondescript corner store to top up.
Here's what I learned.
She gave a good effort at traveling in traditional, anonymous style. Eventually, a shortfall of 9 cents made all the difference.
From CNet : How I went dark in Australia's surveillance state for 2 years
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @09:40AM
Or now via license plate tracking.
But I keep the battery out of my cell when travelling, have a bicycle and selection of baggy clothes to throw off body analysis, and a selection of hats and glasses to throw off my facial appearance.
Plenty of limitations that will lead to you being tracked. The only way to really avoid it carrying multiple changes of clothes and fake beards/wigs to throw off facial/body tracking. And even then they might be able to flag you by gait or method of transportation if you're not careful. Staying anonymous is possible, but doing it effectively will either cost you money or require criminal acts to stay in a constant supply of identity changing apparel and equipment so that you never appear as the same person on two linkable feeds.
The only real solution for anyone who cares is moving to the sticks. But if you do that in America you will have just boxed yourself in for when they inevitably bring cameras to your closest store or intersection. At which point you've lost your privacy/anonymity once again. Which means you need to find someone outside the US if you still care. And expect to have to find somewhere else after that when the flaming eye comes to roost above your new lands once more.
Maybe it is time for more people to chant about the 9th Amendment instead of dicking around with 1,2,4,5. Because the 9th was the catchall for privacy after all.