Biohacker with implanted travel card fined ticketless travel

Many are accustomed to paying in the store and in transport with contactless smart cards. This is really very convenient: just hold the card to the reader - and the necessary amount of money or travel is written off from it. If the card is issued by a bank, then when paying for small purchases you do not need to enter a pincode. But such a card has a major drawback - it can be lost.

An Australian lawyer by the name of Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow (Meow-Ludo Disco) has proposed to improve the system. Why carry a card in your pocket, if it is much more convenient to insert the chip directly into your hand. Such an idea biohacker (he calls himself a cyborg) put forward in 2017 - and put into practice, stitching the chip from the card under the skin of the left palm. "Cyborg" hoped that now he will not have problems in public transport. Hope shattered about the harsh reality. The progressive citizen had to pay a ticket for ticketless travel, because formally he was obliged to present a card to the controller, but could not.

Operation Mr. Mew-Maw held in April 2017 with the help of a specialist in piercing. He cut the NFC chip, packed it in a biocompatible plastic and implanted it in his palm. The photo shows the place of implantation. By the way, not only the travel card is sewn there, but another chip with documents and important information.



A 33-year-old biohacker’s hand was implanted with an Opal card chip , which is used to pay for travel on trains, subways and buses in Sydney. The fare is calculated depending on the distance between the starting and ending points of the trip ( fares ), as well as the time of day and the number of trips (the more often you travel, the cheaper). After purchasing a personalized card, it can later be replenished in cash or via the Internet bank. That is, this is such an “eternal” card with a balance in the account.

The idea of ​​implanting a chip into a hand turned out to be very good - and the hacker regularly paid trips for several months. But in August 2017 there was a failure in the usual system. Meow Meow entered the train with a balance of AU $ 14.07. But officers of the transport police approached him and demanded to show a card. The officers did not take the story of the implanted chip - and they wrote out a fine for the biohacker.

Meow Meow refused to pay the fine, and it came to court. The meeting took place on March 15, 2018. The interests of the transport company on the court represented Andrew Wozniak (Andrew Wozniak) from Sydney Trains. He explained to the court that, according to the law, the wording on the “presentation of a valid ticket” in the case of Opal cards means “the presentation of an Opal card officially issued by the state government”. And what Mr. Meow-Meow implanted there - nobody sees. “Whatever the accused’s hand was definitely not a map,” Wozniak stated. He added that the law is very simple.

The lawyer explained at the hearingthat the client had sufficient funds in the account. He could and had the intention to pay. The lawyer admitted that Mr. Mew-Meow had violated the legal requirement to “present a document for payment of travel”, because the card was implanted in the arm - and it could not be removed and demonstrated. The lawyer said that in this sense his client “is ahead of the law.” This means that in the future, the wording of laws will have to be changed to match the reality of implantable electronics.

The local court upheld a fine for ticketless travel (AU $ 220), but denied the charge of refusing to present a ticket for inspection. The hacker will also have to pay costs in the amount of AU $ 1000.

The lawyer said that now it may seem “strange” to some people that “someone implants a chip from the Opal card under their skin”. But in fact, this is done for the sake of convenience, and in the future such procedures may become popular, because they really simplify life. “Mr Meow Meow outpaced the law,” said the lawyer. “And as a result, he gets a fine for it.”

Following the meeting, the biohacker himself admitted that he was counting on a different result. He noted that the latest upgrade of the Opal system to link the Opal card to a bank card or smartphone is not much different from the chip in hand. Meow-Meow expressed the hope of changing the legislation in accordance with technological progress.

Several like-minded Meow Meows, including the girl in the mask Anonymous, came to the meeting. When, after a meeting with the press, one of the passers-by asked the biohacker: “Why sew it in the arm, brother?”, The masked girl cried out: “You are violating the rights of cyborgs!”