OMG, I just used for the first time the debit card functionality where you tap the card on a device and the payment goes through. And it worked! I’ve had the card for a while but was always afraid to try the tapping. It’s so cool!
I’m like a savage with a tin can.
Let’s have a few moments for Crackpot Technology. 🙂
For a few years, the NFC part of the card was implemented with a separate chip, so people who were paranoid about radio frequency tech versus direct contact with the chip could locate the NFC chip and drill a hole through it very carefully.
No, really.
Those people had good reasons to be a bit paranoid because early NFC chips were a lot less secure than the chip makers were willing to admit to, and so drilling that hole through the NFC chip reduced the risks associated with having an unshielded NFC in your wallet.
That stopped being a thing when the NFC functionality was eventually integrated into the same chip.
But during that period, the NFC chip and the regular bank card chip had two different numbers and were linked by the issuer.
BTW, as a Crackpot, I know all of the best conspiracies and tin foil theories, naturally. 🙂
And speaking of tin foil theories, you’d be well advised to buy some RFID sleeves and to put one on that card, because the NFC may be accessed at a surprisingly long distance.
You could go stylish and pick up a stainless steel mesh wallet or card holder, but the problem with those is that they don’t really flex all that much, which of course should be totally not surprising.
As for the covert reasons why I’d bring this up?
Isn’t everyone who’s paying attention a Crackpot now?
Why shouldn’t everyone be just a bit suspicious about how things really work?
You think that’s a vaccine instead of a gene therapy you’re shooting up, Neo? 🙂
LikeLike
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
Leave a comment