The Universal Card 358
retro128 writes "Wired News is carrying a story about a new product from Chameleon Network that's supposed to replace all of your credit/debit/customer cards. It can read the information off of the magnetic strips of credit/debit cards, scan the barcode off of customer loyalty cards, and even memorize the RFID signals of devices like the Mobil SpeedPass. All of this information is stored in a device called the Pocket Vault, and is unlocked with the user's fingerprint. If you wish to use a magnetic strip card, you select the card from the touch screen and put a Chameleon card, which looks like and can be run in standard readers like a credit card, in the Pocket Vault. The Chameleon card will then assume the identity of the card you selected, but only for 10 minutes. In this way, if the card is lost or stolen, nobody can use it. In the case of RFID, you just hold the Pocket Vault up to the RFID scanner for a reading. For barcode-based cards, the barcode will appear on the screen and can be scanned by a standard barcode reader. Chameleon Network says this technology will be available in early 2005 and is expected to cost under $200."
Pros and Cons (Score:1, Interesting)
At college, I have a meal card and a key card, and as long as I only lose one at a time, I can always either eat or get into my room. If one card served both functions, I would lose food and shelter when I lost it. On the other hand, maybe it would be simpler to only have to keep track of one card and I therefore would not lose it. Who knows.
Re:You want me to pay for that? (Score:2, Interesting)
Big Ouch at the ATM (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Great idea....for thieves! (Score:0, Interesting)
Stacks of Credit Cards? (Score:4, Interesting)
I wouldn't call that a stack and it's manageable. Never even though of this as being a problem before reading the article.
If someone were to use this gadget, they'd have the 'stack' of cards, AND the gadget to worry about. Right?
Sounds like a waste to me.... Nothing to see here, move along please.
wbs.
Did you read the parent post? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:OMG you are a genious. (Score:3, Interesting)
What about replacements? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Gimmie your wallet! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:OMG you are a genious. (Score:5, Interesting)
The criminal element factor was my first reaction to this. Back in the day, I worked as a bartender in a restaurant. I also knew a few people who were 'connected', as it were. These nefarious people had access to a magnetic card writer. I had access to a great many credit cards. I'm sure you can make the connection.
I was paid a non-trivial sum for every credit card number I delivered to them, and more for American Express Platinum cards. I was also paid another amount for pilfering credit cards from the office safe -- you'd be surprised how many people leave their cards behind at a bar and never reclaim them. We would always get at least 5-10 a night, and there was a stack of 100's that people had never claimed.
These people would then re-encode the pilfered cards with the stolen numbers and go on a spending spree. In the event of a store with a last four numbers check, or if security was a concern, they just used another corrupt employee like me to type in the correct four digits. I even recieved a few of these cards as bonus payments myself.
Luckily for me, I got out of the business before it attracted too much attention on my part. However, to this day, I will not use a debit card in place of a credit card. At least with a credit card, you have protection. A debt card just comes right out of your bank account. I certainly tried to not give the criminals debt card numbers, but I'm sure a few slipped through the cracks, and I know that there were co-workers less scrupulous than me.
However, I also wonder if you'd be able to use this device in any store. With all the security in place today, I wonder who would accept this as a valid credit card. I can't even buy things without having the back signed half the time. Then again, it's not like the self-checkout lines at Wal-Mart ever physically inspect my card.
Re:Warning: Vaporware Company Detected (Score:3, Interesting)
On a more serious note, how much of a far-fetched idea did universal remotes appear to be when they were first being developed? While they can be a little bit cumbersome when switching between multiple devices (for those of us who still rig our cable between the VCR, satellite dish, microwave, Bose wave radio, ham radio, heat pump and Tesla coil), it still seems to be generally less hassle than having to switch between remotes to find the appropriate one(s) to use.
Of course, the likelihood of needing multiple cards at one location would be rare, but could this be just the first shot at a product that's bound to come to us eventually, anyway?
Re:A card is more than just a magnetic strip... (Score:4, Interesting)
It sounds like middle-age era to the europeans.
For more than ten years now, we have anbandonned the use of the magnetic tape (not to speak of imprinting...).
Every credit card is equipped with a chip, is protected by a password (a four-digit code) that has to be typed on the card-reader for _anything_ you buy. And if the price is higher than some limit (say $100), the system contacts your bank.
No signature is ever used.
If you want to steal a card, you have to ask for the code (still better than to be asked for your thumb, btw).
It is difficult to copy a card. You cannot simply read it and make a copy. There have been some breach in the past, they have been somewhat fixed afterwards. They have remained small in their extend, and the bank had to cover any subsequent loss themselves (by law). It would be possible to do something even better, but apparently, the costs of upgrading the system are higher than those induced by fraud.
I guess it is the same issue that makes you keep your aging system.
Seriously. (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's what would make more sense: All credit/debit cards require the reader to verify and register the purchase. Instead you open up a meta-account with a debit card that you register ALL your cards and bank accounts with, and then use just that card, allowing the meta-account to distribute your money for maximum savings or returns. Since interest is compounded daily, paying/investing daily could save/make you a fair chunk of change. Hell, just make it a free government service and make it your driver's license or id, so you don't have to carry anything extra.
Oh, and if you lose it you're not out $200.
Re:OMG you are a genious. (Score:3, Interesting)
It comes down to bank policy. My credit cards, by law, have a cap of $50 of personal liability if they are stolen. But my debit card, by WFB policy, has a cap of $0. Which card will *I* use? Hm...
Re:Netherlands has chipknip. (Score:2, Interesting)
See this pdf for a nice english description about.
http://www.protonworld.com/downloads/pdfs
It isnt such a succes as they planned. But it is used pretty much and most stores accept chip payments.
There where some rumors about security leaks do. Chipknip is integrated with your bankcard so not anonymous
Re:A card is more than just a magnetic strip... (Score:3, Interesting)
I also want to touch on the social aspect, as you can see by a few posts thru this topic many folks are very much against the idea of combining all their cards into an all-in-one, and I will bet that most of them are from the US as I am. We are all trained into considering our cards much the same way the banks do, as well as having the added social pressures of both: freedom from privacy violations by biz and government (real, imagined, or socially engineered by some faction), and the "group trends & fads/social network/urban legend" aspect which plays such a large part (along with advertising/entertainment) in how the American people live.
While I'm mildly aware of the one card situation over in the EU, and also both one card and replacing cards with cell phones over in Japan, it seems like there are probably the same factors at play in both those situations, only in altered ways due to CCs being introduced at different times and ways in the different areas. Often times being the first country to implement an idea or proccess is not necessarily the best way for innovation to occur, especially where a large amount of infrastructure and/or business processes are put into place to support the early versions. Countries that implement such ideas later have the luxury of buying into second, third or even higher generations of the tech, which may very well be an almost totally new system such as comparing the US's credit cards with the EU chip card and the Japan cellphone "card". However having such widely varied systems in place in geographically seperated areas will give future innovations in this industry a chance to select the best aspects from three real-world viable and operating systems. I'll take a stab in the dark here and say this also might help keep the "keepers of the cards" from becoming a monopoly.
Jonah Hex
Re:Great idea....for thieves! (Score:3, Interesting)
This is going to be the kind of tool that buglars stay up all night praying for!
Genda
its a strip and a chip (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yes but what about bluetooth? (Score:3, Interesting)
I this case you require the cooperation of the card producer. Just like HomeLink universal garage door opener has cooperated so we get UGDO. But car alarm companies and car manufacturers have not so we do not have universal keyFobs.
I am more confortable with distribution/decentralization of my money access tools. This is why I dont use
Is it just me..... (Score:2, Interesting)
Who do you want to be today?
o)
Re:Small Problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Card Reader (Score:3, Interesting)
What do you think of this?
You get a single card that can store all your info, and a card reader at home. You slip the card in before you head out and unlock all the elements of it using the card reader and some kind of authentication thing like a public key (I like codes that thieves will not expect you to know off the top of your head, like a 4-digit PIN--that's dangerous...but can you see a crook saying, "Give me your Universal Card and your public key"?). You could say, unlock all my credit and debit until 8pm tonight, and leave the Visa and Mastercard unlocked until 10pm.
You have to choose a default credit account that stays on all the time, but if you make too many purchases with it while the rest of the card is locked, the credit card company calls you and lets you know. That's it. They don't shut it off, they don't even have to have a live person call you. They just call you and say, "Someone's charging on your locked card, is it you?"
Of course, if you prefer the credit company to be liable, then you have to allow them to shut it off if purchases don't match your typical buying profile whether it's locked or unlocked. If you want the freedom to never have your card shut off, then you agree to pay the charges.
I don't see the point of keeping things the way they are. I don't know about you guys, but I keep all my credit cards right next to each other, so if I ever get mugged, I'm going to lose them all anyway, along with my ID. So I say stick 'em all on the same piece of plastic so I only have to track one thing. And you have to admit, it's definitely more secure than cash any way you cut it. Someone gets your cash, and what recourse do you have?
sev
I hope you never travel (Score:3, Interesting)
I know someone who on some occasions had the write the words "check id" to the upper right of her signature because people interpreted it as part of her sig.
Stores REALLY need to start reading the smart chips on cards. I've got 4 or 5 cards with those, but since moving to the USA they haven't been checked once.
well (Score:1, Interesting)
What's to stop me from stealing our hand (ala Demolition Man) and uising your finger prints?