Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

UK car sharing service uses smart cards

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

WhizzGo is a pay-as-you-go car sharing service that operates around the UK and pulled into Birmingham earlier this year, according to a Birmingham Mail story. As gas prices rise these sharing services as becoming more popular as people get rid of their cars.

The club issues participants smart cards and PINs which they use to make reservations online and gain access to cars. Once a member makes the reservation online they go to the location to pick up the car. They hold the card over a reader on the windshield that unlocks the car. Once inside a PIN is entered to access the car keys.


The car club charges participants £49.50 annually to use the service. To use a card prices start from £4.95 an hour, including fuel. The cost includes up to 30 free miles a day. There are nine locations around the city where cards can be picked up and dropped off.

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Research In Motion has officially launched BlackBerry 7.1 OS, the latest upgrade to its smart phone operating system.

Available today on BlackBerry App World, BlackBerry 7.1 offers a new content sharing application for NFC phone users called “BlackBerry Tag.” According to RIM, the app allows users to swap contact info, documents, photos, URLs, and invite friends to BBM by simply tapping their NFC-enabled handsets together.

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The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), the state run bus service in Maharashtra, India, has adopted a smart card ticketing system to replace its existing paper passes for transit buses.

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MarketsandMarkets has published a new report predicting that the NFC market will reach over $10 billion by 2016 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38% from 2011 to 2016.

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RIM has unveiled a new contactless content-sharing system for NFC-enabled BlackBerry smart phones, according to Silicon.com.

“BlackBerry Tag” will enable users to share contact info, documents, URLs, photos and other media by simply tapping their NFC-enabled BlackBerry handsets together. The service will also connect to BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), allowing users to tap phones to add each other as friends.

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Privacy advocates in Canada have been raising concerns over the risk involved in two new biometric programs from the government that result in the sharing of private biometric data with other countries’ governments and possibly private corporations, according to an Embassy Magazine article.

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In an attempt to prevent students from sharing their ID cards in the cafeteria meal line, the University of Maine at Orono has deployed hand scanners.

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