MRT Passengers must register their Stored Value cards from 8th August 2020

[Crossy]

MRT Bangkok's Facebook page is announcing that as of August 8th 2020 all passengers using stored value cards must register next time they top up or buy a new card.

 

For us foreigners that means you will need your passport (should just be one time).

 

This is the same legal requirement as for Rabbit.

 

 

Page is in Thai, but FaceBook translate works quite well.

 

 

[dimitriv]

So the government will also be able to see when you are using the MRT, and where you go.

 

The excuse for doing the same with the BTS/Rabbit card was that it could be used to store bigger amounts of money. At that time they said this was not so with the MRT card. What changed ?  

[Crossy]

I suspect that BEM finally lost the fight to avoid registration. Rabbit fought for several years before finally having to come on board with the government requirement.

 

[Bob A Kneale]

1 hour ago, dimitriv said:

So the government will also be able to see when you are using the MRT, and where you go.

If the government really had any interest in the paranoid and where you go it wouldn't need to rely on a train ticket.

[impulse]

7 hours ago, Bob A Kneale said:

8 hours ago, dimitriv said:

So the government will also be able to see when you are using the MRT, and where you go.

If the government really had any interest in the paranoid and where you go it wouldn't need to rely on a train ticket.

 

Not hard to envision a day when someone on a few days' overstay gets met at an MRT station and dragged to the IDC for a big fine and blacklist, instead of quietly paying a small overstay fee when they leave at the airport. 

 

Could be quite an earner...  It would fit right in with the smart cars.

 

[Bob A Kneale]

3 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Not hard to envision a day when someone on a few days' overstay gets met at an MRT station and dragged to the IDC for a big fine and blacklist, instead of quietly paying a small overstay fee when they leave at the airport. 

 

Could be quite an earner...  It would fit right in with the smart cars.

 

There's an solution to that potential problem...don't get on overstay, stay legal if you don't want interaction with the authorities.  Has your vision ever been reported as happening as a result of BTS cards having to be registered or foreigner's phones having to be registered with passports? 

[dimitriv]

1 hour ago, Bob A Kneale said:

There's an solution to that potential problem...don't get on overstay, stay legal if you don't want interaction with the authorities.  Has your vision ever been reported as happening as a result of BTS cards having to be registered or foreigner's phones having to be registered with passports? 

 

That's very similar as saying: I don't have anything to hide, I do nothing wrong, so I don't care about my privacy. There are enough examples in history where data was used in a bad way by governments, in ways you could not have predicted.

 

Governments are not always right...

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by dimitriv

[phetphet]

8 hours ago, Bob A Kneale said:

If the government really had any interest in the paranoid and where you go it wouldn't need to rely on a train ticket.

Maybe not. But they sure are spending a lot of time giving themselves the ability to collect that information. Passport needed to buy a travel card?

What other reasons could they possible have for doing so? Certainly not the old "anti money laundering " chesnut.

[impulse]

1 hour ago, Bob A Kneale said:

There's an solution to that potential problem...don't get on overstay, stay legal if you don't want interaction with the authorities.  Has your vision ever been reported as happening as a result of BTS cards having to be registered or foreigner's phones having to be registered with passports? 

 

A few years ago, people like you would have scoffed at the idea that an overstay could get you on blacklist.  Because "it's never happened".

 

Or get denied a visa because you don't have insurance, because "it's never happened".  Or denied an extension even though you bring in plenty of dosh every month, because "it's never happened".  Or not get let back in after a border hop, because "it's never happened"

 

Yeah.  My vision includes a future where immigration ties their computers into the banks, the tax rolls, your cell phone, the TM30 system, MRT and BTS cards, and whatever other tracking systems they impose.  We've seen a sniff of it with their so called "smart cars" and biometric collection at the borders.  It's also not hard to imagine a Thailand where they track your posts on social media and factor that into the decision whether to extend your stay.  Or meet you at an MRT station because your bank balance fell below the minimums based on your permission to stay, or you're late on a 90 day report. 

 

Sure, "it's never happened".  Yet.

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by impulse

[soi3eddie]

22 hours ago, Bob A Kneale said:

If the government really had any interest in the paranoid and where you go it wouldn't need to rely on a train ticket.

Facial Recognition is probably already being used by the CCTV cameras anyway (at least the working cameras)

[Peterphuket]

19 hours ago, phetphet said:

Maybe not. But they sure are spending a lot of time giving themselves the ability to collect that information. Passport needed to buy a travel card?

What other reasons could they possible have for doing so? Certainly not the old "anti money laundering " chesnut.

The problem, this happens more and more in different countries.

Check, Re-check, total control about you and me.

And there are still a lot of people  who put their heads in the sand like an ostrich and say it is not so bad, or you have an aluminium cap.

[Peterphuket]

Just now, Peterphuket said:

The problem, this happens more and more in different countries.

Check, Re-check, total control about you and me.

And there are still a lot of people  who put their heads in the sand like an ostrich and say it is not so bad, or you have an aluminium cap.

Even here you'll have to be careful with what you sat, the internet never forget.

[5633572526]

On 7/24/2020 at 2:52 PM, Bob A Kneale said:

If the government really had any interest in the paranoid and where you go it wouldn't need to rely on a train ticket.

Yes now that they have Thai chacha they can track you everywhere you go.

[elgenon]

I assume the people worried about this don't use social media. Does LIne have the ability to track you? I would hazard a guess. Yes.

 

And Grab and Uber. And many other apps.

 

And the government's TM 30, 90 day report, and...

[Caldera]

I, for one, will miss laundering money via my MRT stored value card. I might need to switch to trading 7/11 stamps underground.

 

[Yellowtail]

I like when cheaters get caught, almost as much as listening to moaning on about how unfair some new way of catching cheaters is. 

 

I'm happy they know who's riding the train.

[torturedsole]

I suppose I could just purchase a regular ticket to stay under the radar?

[englishoak]

23 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I like when cheaters get caught, almost as much as listening to moaning on about how unfair some new way of catching cheaters is. 

 

I'm happy they know who's riding the train.

Dont be soft in the head, its nothing to do with cheating just tracking people using a cost caving card. You dont need an MRT card or ID to buy a regular ticket and they dont know who those are so dont feel too safe there lol

 

You didnt think before you posted did you ? 

[Yellowtail]

2 hours ago, englishoak said:

Dont be soft in the head, its nothing to do with cheating just tracking people using a cost caving card. You dont need an MRT card or ID to buy a regular ticket and they dont know who those are so dont feel too safe there lol

 

You didnt think before you posted did you ? 

 

You didn't think before you wrote didnt did you? 

 

In any event, my comment has more to do with the knuckleheads that think the government is tracking them. That said, if they were trying to catch cheaters with it, it would at least punish the cheaters by forcing them to stand in line to buy tickets, yes?

 

 

[dimitriv]

On 7/26/2020 at 4:24 AM, Caldera said:

I, for one, will miss laundering money via my MRT stored value card. I might need to switch to trading 7/11 stamps underground.

 

 

You don't have to make it that complicated. I just use my Krungsri account for money laundering.