From: pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 16:53:57 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Strong-crypto smart cards in Singapore and Germany
Message-ID: <84948800022098@cs26.cs.auckland.ac.nz>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


whgiii@amaranth.com ("William H. Geiger III") writes:

><sigh> Big Brother comming to a bank near you.
>
>Does anyone understand the implications of a society moving to an
>electroinc cash based system??
>
>All trasactions will be recorded, moitored, tracked & analysed. This is
>not just the government that one has to worry about but corporations also.

Actually the German system contains some fairly elaborate safeguards to make
it pretty challenging to automatically track transactions (Germans have 
historical reasons for being uneasy about government monitoring).  However
given other German laws like the Fernmeldeanlagenueberwachungsverordnung
(yes, that's one word), which make the CALEA look like a picnic, I'm not sure
how long these safeguards will remain in place.  Given that the standard has
been created by a collaboration of all German banks, who are big enough to 
tell the government to take a hike if they demand access to the data, it may
be safe (certainly the people involved in the project that I've spoken to are
confident that they can keep the data private, however I'm not so sure how
it'll work out in the long run).

As for the Singapore solution, the Singpore government knows whats best for
you, so it isn't any of your business to question their judgement.  Anyone
thinking otherwise gets 25 strokes of the rattan.

Peter.