From: Sean Roach <roach_s@alph.swosu.edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 20:34:54 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: When did Mondex ever claim to be anonymous?
Message-ID: <199610300434.UAA20842@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>On Mon, 28 Oct 1996, R.J.Blakemore wrote:
>
>> As for the Bank, they get details on the item the student has purchased,
>> purchase location (the building and exact 'Mondex point' in the bar/shop
>> where the transaction took place), the exact time and date the
>> transaction was carried out, together with (obviously) the name and ID
>> of the purchaser, etc.
>

Relax, bandwidth is limited, all transactions over certain amounts and in
certain areas have been logged for a long time, these will continue to be
logged.  Records made on the chip will probably have a shorter life than the
memories of those people present, still admissible in court.  Because the
computers logging the details, either on site or at the finantial
institution, have limited storage capacity, less useful data will be
continuously overwritten by more current data.  On site, this may be
nightly, at the bank, possibly weakly, maybe even monthly.  All records,
except those already logged, will have a fairly short halflife, this will be
especially true of locations which enjoy heavy traffic.  As for the "smart
card", it will have a half life as well, especially if you purposely flood
it.  Go to the ATM with the lowest rates, 0 if possible.  Pick one heavily
visited, the nearest to a coin-op laundry would have a particular poetic
justice to it, and transfer funds back and forth for several cycles to
overwrite the data on the card.  Suddenly, the card has been through too
many transactions to recall what happened 500 transactions back.  Someone
with experience with the technology might also modify an electronic wallet
to blank transaction records, this could be as basic as transferring funds
repeatedly between two cards.