Advertisement

Tokyo train station gets facial scan payment systems

First they want to scan our brains for passwords, now they want to scan our faces as train passes? Privacy advocates, get on your tin foil hats facemasks, we've received report that Tokyo's Kasumigaseki Station will be shutting down their totally antiquated FeliCa RFID / NFC payment systems for an hour or two daily for a couple weeks, and switching on biometric cameras that snap faces, match them to train passes, and grant entry (or deny it if your train fare's depleted or late, or you, you know, are a terrorist). Despite lawyers calling it of questionable or outright dubious legality, it's gonna happen over there alright -- at least at Kasumigaseki Station -- so if you're in Tokyo and use this station, we have two suggestions: first is to wear a rubber mask of your pal so as to get on free and avoid detection. Second is to go to the next stop down the road in a show of protest for this system and in support of basic civil liberties and rights to privacy. You know, either works.

[Via Smart Mobs]