Privacy at stake

At the same time, far away from California, the Australian Privacy Foundation has announced its “Big Brother Awards” that point out what they call privacy intruders. Unsurprisingly, among the awarded organizations and projects, one may find the Queensland drivers license, which is merely accused of being a driving license with a chip aboard; Myki, the Melbourne public transport ticketing system, accused of tracking commuters’ trips; along with Facebook or Eric Schmidt, Google CEO.

It is a known fact different people, in different locations, have different sensibilities to privacy issues. Most of the world does not give a second thought about carrying an ID card, but most of the Anglo Saxons, would get mad at the simple idea of having to prove who they are to a police officer. The same Anglo Saxons see no inconvenience when they show a driving license to a cashier in a store, or when all the slightest details of their online behavior are stored by Facebook, Google, or Paypal.

Our industry has the right tools and the right positioning to provide answers to such concerns and to ensure users privacy is protected the way they want it. Our secure transactions industry is in the best position to demonstrate to the world that storing personal data in removable devices that users carry with themselves is more efficient, more secure and more respectful of privacy than huge centralized databases.

Thierry Spanjaard

Chief Editor

Smart Insights