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City buses across America now covertly recording passengers' conversations

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:39:10 +0000

City buses across America increasingly have hidden microphones that track and record the conversations that take place on them. It's easy to see the reasoning behind this: once it's acceptable to video-record everything and everyone on a bus because some crime, somewhere was thus thwarted, then why not add audio? If all you need to justify an intrusion into privacy is to show that some bad thing, somewhere, can be so prevented, then why not? After all, "If you've got nothing to hide..."

According to the product pamphlet for the RoadRecorder 7000 system made by SafetyVision (.pdf), “Remote connectivity to the RoadRecorder 7000 NVR can be established via the Gigabit Ethernet port or the built-in 3G modem. A robust software ecosystem including LiveTrax vehicle tracking and video streaming service combined with SafetyNet central management system allows authorized users to check health status, create custom alerts, track vehicles, automate event downloads and much more.”
The systems use cables or WiFi to pair audio conversations with camera images in order to produce synchronous recordings. Audio and video can be monitored in real-time, but are also stored onboard in blackbox-like devices, generally for 30 days, for later retrieval. Four to six cameras with mics are generally installed throughout a bus, including one near the driver and one on the exterior of the bus.
Cities that have installed the systems or have taken steps to procure them include San Francisco, California; Eugene, Oregon; Traverse City, Michigan; Columbus, Ohio; Baltimore Maryland; Hartford, Connecticut; and Athens, Georgia.

There are lots more exciting possibilities opened up here. For example, our phones and laptops could continuously stream all the audio from our immediate surroundings when we're in public, even when we're not actively using them. No one would listen to them in real-time (or, at least, no one would be authorized to do this), unless they were a cop or someone in government. But when a crime was committed, imagine how useful it would be if all the phones in the vicinity could be tapped for a record of the event!

Why not? If you've got nothing to hide?

This is the NSA's argument, by the way. They're recording all of the Internet and voice traffic in the USA, but they only plan on examining it after the fact, to find criminals who do bad, bad things. Once you accept that logic, there's no reason that they shouldn't put prisoner-tracking ankle-cuffs on all of us (mobile phones are only slightly less invasive than these, anyway, in the current legislative regime), start using lawful interception backdoors to watch us through the webcams in our consoles and computers, and so on.

It's also UK Home Secretary Theresa May's argument in favour of her "Snooper's Charter" -- the communications act she's pushing, which will give law enforcement the power to order service providers to retain any data, and give government and law enforcement access to it.

Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations [Kim Zetter/Wired] (via Wil Wheaton)

Prank signs for the London Underground

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 23:05:11 +0000

An anonymous -- but inspired -- prankster has affixed some helpful addenda to the usual London Underground official signage on various tube-trains, as are documented in this Imgur photoset.

London Underground prank stickers

Yarn bomb transit protest in Edinburgh

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:01:44 +0000

An unknown yarn-bomber has taken to the streets of Edinburgh with a political message, opposing the tramway expansion underway there. Yarnivore Rose says, "Actual political speech in yarnbomb form, rather than 'mere' decoration! BRING IT!"

Radio circuit board laid out like the London tube map

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 18:53:42 +0000

Yuri Suzuki's "London Underground Circuit Maps" is being shown at the London Design Museum until next January. It was developed through the museum's Artist-in-Residence programme.

responding to 'thrift' as a theme, suzuki's work explores communication systems in consumer electronics. a printed circuit board (PCB) is used as a precedent for developing a electrical circuit influenced by harry beck's iconic london underground map diagrams. by strategically positioning certain speaker, resistor and battery components throughout the map, users can visually understand the complex networks associated with electricity and how power is generated within a radio.

Cue humourless, robotic legal threat from Transport for London in 5, 4, 3...

yuri suzuki: london underground circuit map radio (via Red Ferret)

History of subway accidents in NYC

Rob Beschizza — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:25:33 +0000

Kyle Chayka offers a history of deaths and injuries in the NYC subway system, from Victorian tunnel collapses to gang warfare and commuter-pushing psychopaths. [Animal]

Implanting a London Oyster card transponder in a ring

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:00:16 +0000

Dhani Sutanto removed the transponder from a Transport for London Oyster card (a RFID-based stored value card used to pay for rides on public transit) and implanted it in a ring, making a lovely bit of snitchy jewelry that gets him on the bus.

Oyster Ring (Thanks, Phoebe!)

Exciting boring video

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:02:56 +0000

This video from Herrenknecht AG shows the operation of the enormous tunnel boring machine that will conduct the deep tunnelling for San Francisco's new subway lines. The machine obviates the necessity of tearing up city streets for subway construction, and somehow manages to be gentle enough to avoid shaking the buildings above it. There's a much older version of this monster on display at the fabulous London Transport Museum in Covent Garden that is truly awesome to behold.

A TBM consists of a rotating cutterhead within a cylindrical steel shell that is pushed forward along the axis of the tunnel while excavating the ground through the cutterhead. The steel shield supports the excavated ground as required until the final tunnel lining is built in the rear of the shield. The shield is propelled using hydraulic jacks that thrust against the erected tunnel lining system. The TBM is used in conjunction with a prefabricated ground support system, which consists of pre-cast concrete segments that are bolted and gasketed to form a watertight lining.
Pressure-face TBMs that are capable of exerting a balancing pressure against the tunnel face are used to control excavation rates and groundwater inflow, as well as to maintain stability of the tunnel face.
After completion of TBM excavation and installation of the lining, the temporary rail and conveyor system are removed, the invert is cleaned, and a flat invert for the permanent rail fixation and a raised walkway are constructed as reinforced, cast-in-place concrete. The invert contains embedded pipes and inlets for track drainage.

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

FCC seeks comment on who should be allowed to shut down cellular service and when

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:43:19 +0000

Concerned by the San Francisco BART system's decision to suspend cellular service to frustrate coordination among protesters angered by the fatal transit police shooting of an unarmed passenger, the FCC is holding a public inquiry seeking comment on who should be allowed to order cellular service shutoffs, and when. Here's the notice, with instructions for replying. Ars Technica's Megan Geuss writes:

But the FCC's public notice also states that law enforcement personnel have raised concerns that, "wireless service could be used to trigger the detonation of an explosive device or to organize the activities of a violent flash mob," suggesting local government authorities like BART should be allowed to retain some autonomy over service in its stations.
The FCC's decision will most likely set a clear precedent for other local government agencies. So far, two electronic public comments have been posted (the FCC lets you post comments online or send them in by mail), both in favor of more severe restrictions on who can turn off cell phone service and when. "The only time it should be legal to shut down a wireless network is when it is necessary to do so to repair a defect, or when it is necessary to prevent an attack that is compromising the ability of the network to function." said one commenter, "the government and government agencies are not wise enough to judge any other scenario in which one might think about shutting down a network."

Who can shut down cell phone service? FCC seeks public comment

Sack Boris campaign's Oyster card sleeves help Londoners express their support for public transit with each ride

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:15:22 +0000

The Sack Boris campaign, which seeks the ouster of London Mayor Boris Johnson, has a nice line of brightly coloured Oyster-card sleeves that can be yours for a mere £3 donation. The mayor has increased bus-fares by 44% since he took office in 2008, and he is up for re-election in 2012.

Sack Boris

Wedway PeopleMover: Disney's retrofuturistic transit system

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:15:10 +0000

The Disney Parks blog is featuring some fine opening-year 1975 photos of the Wedway PeopleMover, a "mass transit system"-cum-ride in Tomorrowland that is affectionately called the "PeopleCrusher" after its propensity for squishing ill-advised riders who try to hop into oncoming cars. I've always loved the PeopleCrusher, and these photos do a great job of capturing its curvy, groovy, 1970s futuristic glory.

Vintage Walt Disney World: Head Back to 1975 Aboard the PeopleMover

NYC subway rider with rat and spaghetti

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:58:43 +0000

This video highlights the colorful experiences to be had as a NYC subway commuter: in this case, it's an eccentric gentleman who rambles incoherently while eating spaghetti and petting a tame rat on his lap.

Rat on New York City Subway. 2 (via Digg)

FareBot: an Android transit-card sniffer

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:44:19 +0000

Eric Butler's Android app FareBot uses the RFID reader built into the Nexus S Android phone to sniff RFID-enabled transit cards, some of which carry unencrypted ride histories, making them vulnerable to reading by anyone who brushes past you (Butler dryly notes, "Transit agencies across the board should do a better job explaining to riders how the cards work and what the privacy implications are."). Butler's app is just the first step in building software-based transit-card cloners/replacements that allow you to download transit credit to your mobile phone and swipe your phone to pay for fares. Presumably, putting the RFID emitter into a programmable PC will allow for a higher degree of privacy and security for card-users.

Because many of these systems are new, there is often a limited number of places to buy a card and/or add value, especially outside the city center. This presents a great opportunity for NFC-equipped smart phones which, in addition to being able to read cards, also have the capability to emulate a card. No matter how far to the edge of an agency's service area you are, it should be possible to download the ORCA or Clipper app and hop the next bus, streetcar, train, or boat. Apps could link with existing payment infrastructure such as Google Checkout for quick payments without additional setup, and for international travelers looking to get around, apps could support multiple languages and automatic currency conversion.
Typically there is a tradeoff between a transit fare system's level of security and the cost of a card, as the cards with better security are more expensive. Smart phones on the other hand already have the capability to do real cryptography, so there's potential to build a much more secure system while not requiring substantial changes to existing reader infrastructure.
FareBot itself may not appear very useful, but I hope it will seen as a demonstration of what's possible for the future as NFC becomes pervasive. It can be downloaded now from the Android Market, just keep in mind that the current version is not at all complete. If you're a developer and interested in exploring what's stored on cards around the world, I hope you'll check out the source code and contribute. For everyone else - never worry about if you have enough bus fare again!

FareBot: Read data from public transit cards with your NFC-equipped Android phone (via O'Reilly Radar)

Secret Brooklyn Bridge subway station revealed

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:12:38 +0000

Kalaisha sez, "A once abandoned (or, rather, off limits) subway station from 1908 in Brooklyn is now accessible to the public. And it is beautiful. Beautifully preserved too!"

The city closed the station in 1945, mostly because at its height only 600 people a day used it, and because the loop created an unsafe gap at the platform. In 1995 the city vowed to restore the site and turn it into a part of the transit museum, but those plans were scrapped years later.
The station is still not open to the public, but there's a trick you can use to see it for yourself. Until recently the MTA would force passengers to get off before the train made the loop, but now passengers are allowed to stay on. So the next time you reach the end of the line, keep going. And check out these amazing photos courtesy of John-Paul Palescandolo.

The Abandoned City Hall Subway Stop Now Visible To Tourists (PHOTOS) (Thanks, kalaisha!)

(Image: John-Paul Palescandolo and Eric Kazmire)

HOWTO graft the RFID from a payment-card onto your phone

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 21:19:41 +0000

Hardware hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang is living in Singapore, and he's finding it difficult to board the public transit system because he habitually carries so many RFID-embedded cards that the automated turnstiles can't get a read from his EZlink card. So he decided that he would remove the RFID from his transit card and delicately graft it onto the back of his cell phone ("transplanting RFID chips is a much cleaner solution from both the legal and technical perspective versus cracking the security and programming your own RFID to be compatible with the existing payment system. While many of the security systems used in RFID are already broken or have serious known vulnerabilities, I can't think of any country where the authorities would take kindly to you doing it.")

When cutting the chip out, be sure to leave the antenna contacts on either side, as these will be used to solder to the EZlink RFID chip's leadframe tabs. Below is a photo of the chip itself, after it has been freed of its bond to the antenna.
Next, lay some kapton tape down in the region of the RFID chip bonding area to protect the delicate antenna traces underneath. Slide the RFID chip in between the antenna contacts, and solder it down:
Soldering the chip takes a deft hand, since you're soldering onto soft plastic that will melt if you apply too much heat. However, a bit of solder flux applied before the operation and a temperature-controlled iron set to the lowest temperature that will still melt solder makes things easier.
And that's basically it! The final EZlink chip + grafted antenna assembly is very thin and flexible:

RFID Transplantation

Toronto subway etiquette posters

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 06:01:53 +0000

Canada's National Post has created a set of printable subway etiquette posters for the Toronto Transit Commission, where, apparently, people don't know any better.

A TTC etiquette campaign the TTC doesn't know about (with printable posters)

Update: here's the NYC guerilla sign campaign that inspired it

(Thanks, Jeremy!)

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