Thanks to Mohit for the Singapore info.
I knew about the use in Singapore of the Felica tech but no that it has
extended
to convenience stores and Mac Donalds. I think it is also used in Hong
Kong in transportation.
Also, apologizes for the mistyping:
Felica Networks' shareholders are Sony (57%), DoCoMo (*38%*) and JR East
(5%).
As many of you may already know, critical shares for control in Japan
are not 50%
but 66.67% and 33.34%. With the former, you can take any decision you
want without
other shareholders' approval, while with 33.34% you can oppose any
decision, giving you
in some way effective control if nobody has a larger share than you.
Another critical level is (if I rmember) 15%, as it forces a company to
consolidate the participation
in its accounts, which takes some trouble and paperwork most companies
are not fond of
With this information, you can say that while Sony heads the company and
Felica Networks
could be labelled "a Sony Group company", DoCoMo has the power to oppose
almost any decision,
while JR's participation is more symbolic and shows only its "goodwill"
(similar to the 40 and so minor shareholders in Bitwallet)
There is no reason why DoCoMo would damage Felica Network's investment
by preventing
work with Vodafone or other companies, especially if it contributes to
making Felica a de facto
standard and may support its entry in Europe through Vodafone's operations.
As for tracking people like with ATMs, this is indeed a very interesting
question, and the answer
to this is certainly : yes, they can track your use of EDY as:
a) you have a unique EDY I.D. number and
b) every transaction goes through the Bitwallet consortium
It is certain - and a part of the value offering of EDY - that
businesses get statistics and can track
usages. However, it is anonymous as they only get your EDY number and
not your mobile phone
number or your name. Convenience stores are very strong in statistics
and consumer profiling
(they type at the register your estimated age, genre, etc. when you make
purchases)
Also, I believe that it is impossible for, say, AM/PM to know that you
rented a CD in GEO,
and that Bitwallet is very unlikely to release this type of user info to
other businesses,
as it would badly damage their reputation.
-- Benjamin
nick may wrote:
>Anyone know exactly what tracking can be done of a specific user using
>the Felica system?
>
>Is it technically possible (leave aside the legalities for the moment)
>to trace someone's path across the country by their purchases, as it
>is, for example, with a credit card and even withdrawals form ATM
>machines.
>
>Nick
>
>
>This mail was sent to address benjamin@newtgames.com
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Received on Mon Feb 28 07:37:29 2005